Fulton Innovation: Wireless Charging for Electric Cars
Have you heard of a Powermat for mobile phones, well an Israeli company that sells electronic pads capable of charging electrical devices wirelessly. Are they magicians? No, it’s something called inductive charging, which utilizes an electromagnetic field to allow electrons to “jump” a short distance from the pad to the receiver attached to the phone or whatever it is you’re recharging.
Very slick, but would it be possible to scale it up to charge a bigger electrical device? Like, for example, a car? Turns out the answer is yes, and GM is already collaborating with Powermat on a system for wirelessly charging the Chevrolet Volt. Meanwhile, Fulton Innovation, one of Powermat’s rivals, is also working on a wireless vehicle charging system, and actually showed off the prototype seen here charging a Tesla Roadster at CES in Las Vegas.
Is this the future, let’s hope so, cables are so boring!
