Charging cars wirelessly!! What is Norway up to?

5 min readMar 3, 2021

As electric vehicles become more and more prominent on our roads and charging capacity more and more of an issue. Norway has come up with a clever Broadview solution for its fleet of taxis called an electric city. In the future, it might take in far more vehicles too the nordic country has already committed to! Requiring all new cars sold from 2025 onwards are electric and intends to build an entirely emission-free taxi service. To assist in its lofty aims with charging time and efficiency limiting factor for electric commercial vehicles.

In particular, they’ll be doing this by charging the cabs wirelessly through the taxi rank! They sit on as the taxis wait to be hired! This saves in several ways! No need to hunt out an available charger. No need to wait separately for a charge and to be hired and no need to plug in or unplug.

When a fare arrives all in save precious time! To earn in the industry, after all, time is money the charging will take place through a process called induction. To facilitate in-place charging plates are to be installed under the road! Where the taxis will park up and a receiver located in each taxi. This will allow for charging at up to 75 kilowatts entirely without cables.

How does wireless charging works?

Induction charging works through the principle of electromagnetic induction. Whereby an electric charge sent through a thick coil of wire is used to generate an electric current. The force of which in turn generates an electric current in a second coil some distance away!

What will be the minimum distance between the car and charging pod?

The process does require that the device to be charged is relatively near to the coil. So the process is sometimes called near field charging. As it is not absolutely precise like the connection of a cable. However, this is relatively simple to set up between a taxi and a static location. So long as the positioning of the vehicle is relatively accurate. Something that can be easily achieved through normal parking naturally. Such a process would be of limited green benefit unless! The electricity is supplied to the taxis was already from a green source.

Is it better to go greener?

Electric cars can be much greener than their petrol equivalent. But only where care is taken that the electrical source is better for the environment than petrol. It’s replacing fortunately, Norway has that covered too with the country’s ever-improving mix of hydro and wind energy! One of the greenest energy supplies in any country in the world. As well as the world’s highest rate of electric vehicle ownership! At the heart of the program is a Finnish clean energy company, Thorton. Through their charge and drive program. The company is long-time collaborators with Norway’s taxi industry with a particular focus on the ease of infrastructure! And will be heavily involved in the setup of the earliest parts of this project.

When will this be available?

Major car firms like the jaguar and land rover are also stepping up to the plate. The very first step is expected to be active in 2023! And will involve the installation of charging stations at the taxi rank outside the main station of Oslo. The process is relatively slow as beyond the digging up of the road for installation outside the main station. It also requires all the taxis are set up for charging! Taxis will be able to drive up to the charger and a wireless charging session will automatically start. Annika Hoffner head of the project sets this allows the taxis to charge in a place! Where they would anyway be waiting for new customers. The difference is that they won’t be emitting exhaust while waiting! Instead, they will be receiving renewable energy to charge the taxi’s battery whilst this is simply an early step.

Norway is a logical place to take such a step towards a wider network! As well as its broadly green approach to energy. The Nordic country also has one of the strongest markets for electric vehicles in the world in the long term. Though there could be far wider applications to this kind of technology. There’s already research taking place into how to charge cars as they travel.

Is moving car charging possible?

While putting a charging coil in a single location or several single locations! Such as in the taxi ranks is an affordable option. Then doing the same for the entire street on the move charging is far more challenging in terms of both cost and expanding. The technology beyond a single industry that said Renault began looking at the idea way back in 2012.

Creating a route on the outskirts of Paris that enabled the ongoing charging of two of their Kangol electric vehicles as they drove. While the main aim is a kind of grazing charging adding to the battery between larger charges. This could in theory allow indefinite driving especially perhaps in combination with self-driving car technology in practice. The bigger benefits are on the green energy side as well as potentially allowing both greater ranges and smaller batteries in future electric cars. The huge infrastructure challenges do mean its everyday use is not on the immediate horizon.

What will be the benefits of going electric?

For now, Norway and its taxi industry might just be the perfect testing ground! The country already has the highest rate of electric vehicles in the world. It’s also relatively small in population. Which allows for changes like this to be made fairly quickly and unobtrusively. Also, Norway is not the home of a single automotive company likely to lobby against the changes. So is free to put in place all kinds of benefits for switching to electric without any excessive lobbying or economic pressure. Benefits for electric car use so far have included free or discounted road tolls parking and charging points and a tax exemption. The number of purchased new cars that are electric is closing in on half of all new vehicles in the country.

So the process well underway would you like to see money invested in areas like this in your country what’s the best way forward tell us in the comments.

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