“Ineez Air Charging” for up to 22 kW will be presented at CES.
By John Smith
Wireless charging for electric car batteries is actually a fascinating thing because it means you can forget about the hassle of plugging in.
However, a lack of cross-manufacturer standards and low efficiency have so far prevented its introduction. It is now becoming apparent that this could change in the next few years.
In any case, the French automotive supplier Valeo is showing a new system at the CES electronics trade fair.
The new inductive charging system is called Ineez Air Charging , and is said to be the only solution that uses an extremely low frequency of just 3 kHz.
The system is also said to weigh 50 percent less than competing systems. This apparently affects the parts that have to be installed in the car, such as the induction coil.
With inductive charging, electrical energy is transferred to the car via a magnetic field. To do this, a corresponding coil must be installed in the vehicle in which the magnetic field generates (“induces”) an electrical current.
According to Valeo, the required hardware has been simplified, making the system particularly affordable.
Nevertheless, a high efficiency of over 90 percent would be achieved in the energy transfer from the power grid to the battery.
The system can be connected to an existing wallbox or directly to the power grid. It works with single-phase and three-phase power systems as well as with 400 volt and 800 volt batteries.
The solution is also bidirectional, meaning you can also feed electricity from the car back into the grid (Vehicle-to-Grid, V2G), with 7 to 22 kW.
In addition, the Valeo system should be just as suitable for private charging in the home garage as it is for public charging in parking lots or on the street.
Ineez Air Charging is also prepared for autonomous charging. The car would park autonomously above the charging loop and start charging automatically.
It is not clear from the press release whether the loading plate is raised to reduce the distance.
How the positioning of the vehicle works with the Valeo system has not yet been disclosed. Hopefully we’ll find out more about this in a few days- CES starts on January 9th.
It is possible that one is already following the standard that was recently set by the standards authority SAE International.
The non-profit and internationally recognized association based in the USA has, among other things, already defined the standards for the OBD-2 interface and for the vehicle identification number VIN.
SAE set the system of the German automotive supplier Mahle as the positioning standard, as the latter reported at the end of November.
This positioning method is called DIPS (Differential Inductive Positioning System) and is not based on a separate radio connection, but rather on a magnetic field, like power transmission.
The location information is apparently transmitted to the car via this.
This is actually obvious, because the magnetic field strength decreases with distance. Mahle did not disclose exactly how this works. In any case, the person behind the wheel is instructed via displays on the vehicle display, i.e. via a type of assistance system. The charging process then begins automatically.
The positioning should be done in one go and reproducibly, even if there is snow or damp leaves on the base plate.
Autonomous parking vehicles are also supported. In the future, charging via induction coils should also be possible while driving.
There is already a standard for this that Mahle has formulated together with Electreon Wireless.
All things Considered
When car manufacturers talk about wireless charging, they often refer to the corresponding charging cradle for cell phones.
Inductive charging according to the Qi standard is common practice for smartphones, and it could also be available for electric cars in a few years.
However, that is not certain. BMW presented such a system back in 2018. Nothing has come of it so far.
And at Audi, too, corresponding developments were “down-prioritized,” as a manager at the company once told us.
