Within around ten years, it will be possible to charge electric or plug-in hybrid cars practically anywhere: in garages, in public car parks, or even while driving on the motorway. A technical evolution that will give a powerful — an extremely powerful — boost to the uptake of sustainable mobility and will make it easier to use low-environmental-impact vehicles.

High-efficiency induction

Wireless charging is the new frontier of the automobile. According to researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory — the largest American national laboratory for interdisciplinary science and technology, managed by the United States Department of Energy — cable-free cell regeneration will be the technology that, in the not-too-distant future, will make electric cars accessible to everyone. The Tennessee research centre, with which carmaker Toyota collaborates, has developed a charging system of 20 kilowatts (kW) at high efficiency (reported at 90 per cent) that brings performance closer to that of the more widely available high-capacity charging points. Already on the horizon is an evolution to fifty kW, as well as the true revolution expected within just over a decade: charging on the move.

Say goodbye to connectors

An induction system that allows batteries to be recharged while driving: this is not a fantasy, but a concrete horizon that initially envisages multiple sporadic micro top-ups, then continuous ones, with no need for connectors. A milestone drawing closer every day, aided by the commitment of American multinational Qualcomm, already a sponsor of Formula E, the highest expression of low-emission motorsport. In this regard, the Halo project, a charging platform close to mass production, can currently operate at up to twenty-two kW, but "solutions of two hundred kW already exist — says Grzegorz Ombach, head of Qualcomm's Engineering division — dedicated to electric buses and achieved by combining multiple regeneration units." "The real future, in any case, is dynamic charging, with roads and motorways dotted with induction plates: it will be possible to drive and at the same time see your range increase."

Electric cars charge like a smartphone

Wireless technology is essentially based on the pairing of an inductor (inserted in a pad placed on the ground, or beneath the asphalt) and a receiver on board the car: the system exploits the resonance created by variations in the intensity of the magnetic field, transferring energy in a manner similar to portable devices, smartphones above all. A solution in which several manufacturers believe; for example Alphabet — the holding company that owns Google — for the Google Car, or Nissan which, in collaboration with British architecture and design studio Foster and Partners, is refining a distributed-station concept thanks to which cars will be able to recharge their cells simply by remaining parked at the roadside.

Smaller batteries, lower prices

The first step towards the uptake of the new technology will consist of stationary wireless charging, available within a couple of years for every private garage. The second step, expected in 2020, will bring the widespread public rollout of this solution, usable in parking areas, at the roadside and in bays marked by blue lines, while in 2025 the peak of the transformation will arrive, with the first road stretches equipped with inductive charging. An epoch-making evolution that will allow electric cars to be used with greater ease; manufacturers will in fact be able to build cars with smaller, lighter — and therefore cheaper — batteries, and at the same time it will be possible to travel with reduced energy consumption. In addition, disposal of the cells, being smaller in size, will be simplified and will entail a lower environmental impact. Inductive charging could be the trump card of electric mobility.