Wireless Charging

With any electric vehicle, you're going to spend some time parked up and plugged in. Being able to roll along the highway with the batteries charging as go would be much better, and a new development out of Stanford could see that happening.

Back in 2016, ORNL developed a 20-kW wireless charger for electric vehicles with a reported 90 percent efficiency. That was for passenger vehicles, and now a system for a medium duty, plug-in hybrid delivery truck has been successfully tested.

There’s plenty of ambient radiation just floating around in the air, and now MIT researchers have laid out the blueprints of a system that could tap into this wasted energy source and use it to charge electronic devices.

Renault has offered its take on what personal mobility might look like from 2025 with the Morphoz, an electric crossover that can morph between city and extended travel modes, can be wirelessly charged, and is ready for ride sharing.

Powercast is set to unveil three new products at CES 2020, including a wireless charging grip for Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers, which can charge the devices from about 2 feet from a wireless power transmitter.

A Spanish start-up called Proton New Energy Future has unveiled Ebörd, a smart table that has a wireless charger built into the entire surface, allowing it to charge multiple devices at once. Better yet, it harvests energy from the Sun or even artificial light.

​When they're not ferrying folks around from A to B, taxis can be sitting around doing nothing. Electric taxis in Norway's capital will soon be able to wirelessly top up their batteries while waiting for their next fare.​

In a new step towards truly wireless charging, engineers have developed an ultra-thin device that captures Wi-Fi signals and converts them into electricity.

Dolby has finally gotten its own hands dirty and released its first consumer product. Dolby Dimension is a set of wireless, noise-cancelling headphones specifically targeted at home entertainment use – but hey, there’s nothing stopping you using them wherever you like.

​The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory built a 20 kW wireless charging system in April 2016. Now ORNL has demonstarted a 120 kW wireless charging prototype.​

Global Energy Transmission (GET) has pioneered a mid-air inductive recharging system that can charge up several drones at once without requiring them to land. Build enough of these stations, and you can have an army of drones in the air that never need to land.

Logitech is about to dive into the wireless charging market with a stand designed in conjunction with Apple that tips the iPhone to just the right angle to watch videos while the smartphone's battery is topped up.