The city betting big on wireless charging for electric taxis and last mile deliveries

Sweden may be a small nation on the northern edge of Europe but it is a world leader in innovation and technology development. The World Intellectual Property Organisation ranks Sweden as the second most innovative economy in the world.

Gothenburg is the hub of Sweden’s Automotive industry, being home to Volvo Trucks, Volvo Cars, Scania and Polestar. It is also the home to the world Leading Chalmers Institute of Technology and several branches of the Research Institutes of Sweden, the equivalent of our CSIRO. Gothenburg prides itself on being the most innovative city in an innovative country.

Among the 60 technology testbeds hosted by the city, one of things I have been most excited to see at EVS38 in Gothenburg is the wireless charging system installed run the city for use by the city’s taxi drivers. I first learnt about this at EVS37 last year in Seoul where Project Manager, Anne Piegsa, presented their learnings on the driver experience.

Having concluded a successful three year pilot with four 75kW wireless chargers installed at two charging locations serving twenty Volvo EX30 taxis; Gothenburg used EVS 38 today to launch the 3rd wireless charging location at the Svenska Massen.

It also confirmed that wireless charging for taxis, last mile delivery and other vehicles will form part of the city’s strategic electrification plan and part of achieving their net zero by 2030 goal.

So how does it work?

From my vantage point in the front passenger seat of the car it all seems very simple. First our driver turned on the Cars front parking camera.

Then he lined up the two yellow parking lines with the parking lane and drove forward till the little white mark on the road lined up with the bottom of the screen. He put the car in park, and then opened and closed the drivers door and 2 second later the car started charing an quickly started drawing 90amps. 

The system is limited to 100A, so the Volvo, with its 400V battery will max out at 40kW a car with an 800V battery will max out at 75kW.  Power comes from a fairly typical electrical cabinet and each cabinet can support 4 charging pads. 

The technology promotes a different charging mindset, this is true opportunity charging, charge for seconds minutes or longer, with no need to get out of the car and plug in.

InductEV, the manufacturer of the charger, sees this wireless charging technology as foundational for autonomous vehicles but today does most of its business with bus operators in the US, where there is a need for on route chargers but where pantograph chargers are not acceptable in the urban landscape. 

Installing the equipment in the car is relatively simple according to InductEV. There are three connections, one to the high voltage battery terminals, one to the CAN bus to communicate with the car and the BMS and one to the low voltage system to power the equipment.

InductEV did note that although this works with any EV they need manufacturers support to adapt their software to communicate with the vehicle. 

This is not a technology for every driver, given that it is quite a high cost adaptation to a vehicle but where their are specific high utilisation use cases where drivers frequently visit known locations there can be a lot of benefits.

The trial has now ended and InductEV are taking over operations of the chargers on a commercial basis along with opening new sites, today’s launch being the first of these. 18 out of 20 drivers decided to continue with their vehicle on conclusion of the trial, with the two drivers handing their vehicles back retiring from the taxi industry. 

One thing to note about Gothenburg; the city has long ago made some decision about how to allocate their streets. There is very little on street parking anywhere in the city.

Cars live in car parks, streets are shared between trams, buses, cars and, of course bikes, with an extensive network of bike paths. So there is no curbside charging, but this wireless charging product may end up be the first charging on public streets if, as planned, it gets installed in taxi ranks in these locations.