The development of wireless electric vehicle charging has been boosted by wireless technology provider Qualcomm Incorporated investing in Chargemaster.

Chargemaster, based in Luton, designs, develops, manufactures and operates charging points for electric vehicles.

It has produced more than 27,000 charging points for use in public, workplace and domestic locations and operates POLAR, the UK's largest network of public charging points.

Chargemaster believes there is a market for charging pads at domestic, workplace and public locations and the new points will supplement the company’s existing EV charging network.

The company has already installed more than 10,000 ‘wireless ready’ public and workplace charging points in the UK and Europe, which can be easily adapted to include the new Qualcomm Halo Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) systems.

The WEVC technology utilises resonant magnetic induction to transfer energy from a ground-based pad to a pad integrated into the vehicle.

The base pad and vehicle pad are coupled magnetically and energy is transferred wirelessly into the vehicle and used to charge the vehicle’s batteries.

The base pad may be mounted on a garage or road surface or buried below the ground. This technology is designed to allow easy alignment when parking.

Wireless charging removes the need to retrieve a cable out of the boot of an electric car and plug it into a charging point wherever the car needs recharging.

Many car manufacturers are planning to incorporate wireless charging into their electric and plug in hybrid cars as original equipment in the near future.

David Martell, CEO of Chargemaster said: “We have been working with Qualcomm for several years now and this investment is a natural progression. We are very excited about helping to bring the next major evolution in electric motoring to the market, making the electric driving experience even more enjoyable and practical for daily use."

Dr Anthony Thomson, vice president of business development and marketing at Qualcomm Europe, said: “Qualcomm Halo WEVC is viewed as the future of EV charging by many EV manufacturers. Chargemaster is a leader in the deployment of charging infrastructure and by making this investment we are taking another step towards deployment of a convenient and easy to use WEVC network. The goal being to improve the user experience and drive the uptake of electric vehicles.”

 

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