Tesla vehicle at WiTricity wireless recharging station.
Concerns of where they'll plug in an electric vehicle to replenish its charge is a major obstacle for many consumers not ready to trade in their gas burners for battery-powered rides. It's also an inconvenience and efficiency issue for commercial operations using battery-electric robots and transport vehicles.
But WiTricity, a global developer of wireless charging technology, is now attracting millions in new investments from automotive suppliers and tech companies and entering into a new agreement with a major manufacturer of wireless charging systems for industrial vehicles.
This week the Watertown, Mass.-based company announced a global licensing agreement with German tech company Wiferion to use WiTricity's patented intellectual properties to further develop its wireless charging capabilities for electric industrial devices including robots and transport carts.
Rendering of WiTricity wireless EV charging stations.
“It's a great application, contactless. so they're using our technology. They're not the only licensee in that space,” WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen told Forbes.com in an interview. “We have our core of automotive. Then we have adjacent markets where we license our technology.”
WiTricity estimates wireless charging increases factory uptime 32% through efficiencies gained by allowing a continual autonomous operations as well as eliminates safety concerns related to the elimination of exposed electrical connectors.
“Having access to WiTricity’s patent portfolio will allow us to further sharpen our value proposition and accelerate the adoption of wireless charging in industrial automation,” said Florian Reiners, CEO of Wiferion in a statement.
While the Wiferion deal is an important extension of WiTricity's reach, the company's core automotive business won a major financial and confidence boost earlier this summer winning a $25 million dollar investment from German auto supplier Siemens AG which also took a minority stake.
Gruzen pointed to three vital elements of the Siemens deal that not offers WiTricity a financial boost but even greater opportunities to promote wireless charging.
“The three important parts are one, investment, second, the collaboration agreement where we'll be driving product into the market. Siemens will be selling wireless charging infrastructure. They'll have a license to our technology patent portfolio and can develop, build and extend upon the products under license using our patents,” explained Gruzen.
But even more important, said Gruzen, is WiTricity's relationships in the auto industry will now broaden.
“Siemens is a significant statement. Instead of us just supporting tier ones (suppliers) or us just selling chargers direct to consumers, now an OEM knows if a fleet needs hundreds of chargers there are players like Siemens stepping up and capturing that opportunity. It's like a proof of existence,” Gruzen said.
Siemens estimates the global market for wireless recharging will reach $2 billion by 2028 in Europe and North America alone.
Looking at the bigger picture of breaking down consumer reluctance to go electric based on charging concerns, Gruzen see the wireless option as providing a more convenient way for drivers to get enough juice quickly and be on their way, especially when they don't have time or the opportunity to plug into a DC fast charger.
“I want to make Level 2 charging as easy as possible. I call it power snacking. You just do little top-ups whenever you park, wherever you park, instead of this big pipe of power infrequently,” Gruzen said.
Indeed, WiTricity worked closely with the SAE to develop a standard for wireless charging and one goal of the company's new relationship with Siemens is to bridge the gaps in the global standardization of wireless charging for electric passenger and light duty commercial vehicles.
That standard was ratified in 2020 and the first vehicles are now rolling out built around that standard—most notably, the Genesis GV60 SUV. It includes an integrated charging receiver and pad placed under the car.
“Car pulls up, park, turn the car off, you walk away,” Gruzen said.
In China, automaker FAW and Wanda Group are creating 60 autonomous parking garages where vehicles park themselves, charge themselves and then return to the driver when summoned.
Visitors to this September's North American International Detroit Auto Show will be able to see a demonstration of this technology on the Huntington Place show floor and take a shuttle ride to a nearby test garage.
The “sweet spot” for passenger cars is 11 kilowatts or 35 miles of range per hour Gruzen noted. For larger, commercial vehicles that spot is heftier.
“For commercial vehicles we're developing 75kw and above,” Gruzen explained. “Think about a loading dock where you're charging a middle mile truck or last mile van or a bus you can do 75 up to 300 kw, so that transit bus can get 25 miles of range while the driver is on coffee break. A truck could get all it needs for the day while it's sitting in the loading dock.”
He supports the Biden administration proposal to create a national recharging network using plug-in chargers for the purpose of “range extension” when drivers are on long trips. However, he argues, use of DC fast chargers for everyday applications is not sustainable.
“The grid will not be able to support it. The cost of the infrastructure, the cost of fast chargers, the cost per kilowatt hour is awful,” Gruzen said. “In practice if you use DC fast charging to deliver the bulk of your kilowatt hours you give up all the cost savings of shifting to electric versus gasoline and probably impacted battery life.”
While EVs are popular, almost mandatory in other regions in the world, will they reach that level in the U.S. where EVs represent only about 5% of the market?
“I don't think current mix represents U.S. demand. There are people not buying because there just isn't an EV that fits them. The U.S. Is not Europe,” predicted Gruzen.
But looking further into the future, Gruzen feels confident EV charging will eventually cut the cord in every case, noting, “Everything that has a cord or cable is going to go wireless. That's happened with every technology in history.”
