Is wireless charging a new way of replenishing energy for new energy vehicles? At least that's what Volvo thinks. Recently, Volvo officials said that it is working with partners to test the wireless charging function of the vehicle in the urban use environment.
According to the "Gothenburg Green City" strategic plan, the Gothenburg metropolitan area has set up a number of field test areas for sustainable technology research and development activities, and the development and application of wireless charging technology is one of the test contents of the plan.
For the idea of developing wireless charging for new energy vehicles, Mats Moberg, head of research and development at Volvo Cars, said in an interview, "Trying exciting new technologies in a real environment and testing new charging technologies with selected partners is a good way to evaluate our future car alternative charging solutions", which shows that Volvo seems to have the idea of betting on wireless charging.
In fact, wireless charging is not a new thing, especially in the field of mobile phones. Once upon a time, before the technology was not mature, mobile phone wireless charging and fast charging were not optimistic about the industry, but with the increase of wireless charging power, wireless charging has now been popularized in the market, even Apple, which was quite repelled by wireless charging technology before, also invested in the embrace of wireless charging for user experience, which shows that wireless charging is really fragrant.
In contrast, the field of new energy vehicles does not attach importance to the energy replenishment method of wireless charging, and can even be said to be completely ignored. Although new energy vehicles have ushered in an outbreak in recent years, after years of policy support and the layout of car companies, charging piles have become the mainstream of new energy vehicles, and the power replacement mode is also beginning to become a new energy supplement mode, only wireless charging has been left behind.
So why did Volvo start to pay attention to the power supply mode of wireless charging at this time? Does it mean that wireless charging, like the previous power exchange mode, is also about to usher in a new outlet?
Wireless charging is about to usher in a new outlet?
Before analyzing whether the new energy vehicle wireless charging will become the next outlet, let's take a look at what is the "wireless charging" of new energy vehicles, it is understood that the basic principle of wireless charging of electric vehicles is similar to the wireless charging of mobile phones.
Nowadays, the wireless charging methods used at home and abroad are to install energy receiving devices in the chassis of the vehicle, install energy transmitters on the ground, and send electrical energy from the ground end to the car end through the conversion of electric field and magnetic field, and charge it into the lithium battery. Compared with the wired charging energy supplement method used by the mainstream charging pile, wireless charging avoids the electric spark that may be generated when the wired charging is inserted and removed to a certain extent, which is not only more convenient but also greatly improves safety and reliability.
Of course, in the past few years, wireless charging has been neglected for a long time, that is, its shortcomings are very obvious, and at present, it is mainly concentrated on the high cost of equipment. At present, the wireless charging equipment of new energy vehicles not only requires a lot of public and private investment, but also has strict requirements on the charging environment, large maintenance costs and high energy consumption for long-distance transmission. It can be said that the high cost and low charging efficiency have become two important obstacles to the rapid development of wireless charging.
This time, volvo's entry into the wireless charging field has obviously solved most of the problems, especially charging efficiency. According to Volvo, the wireless charging power equipped for the pure electric XC40 can exceed 40kW, and its charging speed is not inferior to the 50kW DC fast charging pile on the market at present, which is about four times faster than the wired 11kW AC charging pile. It can be said that in terms of charging efficiency, after years of development, at least in the charging efficiency of this one off, wireless charging has the first step of large-scale promotion.
It is worth mentioning that the reason why Volvo entered the field of wireless charging this time is that in addition to the breakthrough in technology, there is also optimism about the follow-up development of wireless charging.
According to the latest report of research institute Research and Markets, the wireless charging market for electric vehicles is expected to reach $407 million by 2025, and the compound annual growth rate in the period from 2020 to 2025 will reach 117.56%. The report also said that growing demand for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles is driving the overall growth of the wireless electric vehicle charging market.
Not only that, in the past, the rapid promotion of charging piles and power exchange modes was inseparable from the support of policies, and wireless charging was the same. As early as last year, the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" issued by the General Office of the State Council clearly proposed that it is necessary to "strengthen the research and development of new charging technologies such as intelligent and orderly charging, high-power charging, and wireless charging".
In addition, the four national standards for wireless charging of electric vehicles in mainland China promulgated by the National Standardization Administration have also standardized the technical requirements, performance requirements, functional requirements, safety requirements, communication protocols, test requirements and test methods, interoperability requirements and test methods, construction acceptance, operation and maintenance of electric vehicle wireless charging systems in public and private applications.
It can be said that with the rapid growth of the wireless charging market, the emergence of relevant policies and standards, as a new breakthrough in the way of new energy vehicles to supplement energy - wireless charging is also about to usher in large-scale promotion, which is an important reason why Volvo chose to enter wireless charging at this time. It can be said that Volvo, which missed the era of fast charging, is planning to achieve curve overtaking in the new energy market with wireless charging networks.
Car companies have stepped up their entry into wireless charging
For Volvo to enter the field of wireless charging, in fact, everyone is not surprised, because Volvo will not be the first car company to enter the wireless charging, nor will it be the last. As early as 2017, BMW had planned to launch a wireless charging version when it launched the new 5 Series sedan.
According to the introduction, bmw 530Le is equipped with a plug-in hybrid system composed of a 2.0T engine and an electric motor, of which the maximum power of the 2.0T engine is 135 kW and the peak torque is 290 Nm; the maximum power of the electric motor is 70 kW, and the maximum torque is 250 Nm; the two can output 185 kW maximum power and 420 Nm maximum torque at the same time, and the comprehensive fuel consumption of 100 km is as low as 1.9 liters.
The car has a maximum range of 61 km in pure electric state, which can accelerate the vehicle to 140 km / h in pure electric mode without starting the engine at all, and the vehicle can be fully charged in only 4 hours. To this end, BMW has equipped it with a 3.2 kW wireless charging system.
Although the wireless charging system has not been promoted on a large scale because of the low charging efficiency, it does not prevent BMW from exploring wireless charging.
In addition to BMW, the L7, which is about to be launched by a new power brand like SAIC, is also equipped with an 11kW wireless charging function. In addition, Volkswagen, Toyota, FAW, Geely, SAIC, BYD and other mainstream car companies at home and abroad have opened the research and development and layout of wireless charging technology, and formed a relatively clear mass production plan.
Not only that, when car companies lay out wireless charging, upstream and downstream companies are also stepping up the production and research and development of wireless charging piles. For example, Qualcomm announced in 2017 that it had completed the trial of wireless charging in electric vehicle driving, that is, adding inductive charging devices on the road so that the car could be charged while driving.
In addition to Qualcomm, Wanan Technology, like Evatran, a leading wireless charging company in the United States and Tesla wireless charging supplier, said on the interactive platform in the second half of last year that the company's new energy vehicle wireless charging technology is basically mature and will enter the stage of small batch mass production. On March 7, Anjie Technology also emphasized in its interaction with investors, "The wireless charging pile of new energy vehicles is part of the wireless charging system of new energy vehicles, and the company's new energy vehicle wireless charging system has obtained the fixed-point project cooperation of new energy vehicle terminal brand customers, in order to meet customer order needs, the company is currently expanding production capacity." ”
It can be said that after Volvo, many car companies are already aiming at the new outlet of wireless charging. It is foreseeable that as more and more car companies enter the game, wireless charging will also present a scene of a hundred flowers competing like the development of fast charging mode, and play its part for new energy vehicles.
It is undeniable that compared with the fast charging pile, the current wireless charging technology is still not mature enough, and this time Volvo's purpose of taking the lead in entering the game is very clear, no doubt trying to seize the market opportunity before the wind outlet is still formed. After all, in the new energy market, Volvo is lagging behind too much.
Summary: With the deepening of the development of new energy, the current market has formed a charging pile-based, power replacement as a supplementary energy model, but when new energy vehicles have not yet become the mainstream of automobiles, the dispute between "fast charging and power exchange" will continue to exist. In the future, no matter how they fight each other, who will become the upper hand at some time, in fact, in the final analysis, it is a battle of efficiency. As long as the two models do not strike a balance between cost and efficiency, the battle will continue.
While they fight, can we focus on wireless charging? You know, in the era of smartphones, wireless charging has also been neglected for a long time. If wireless charging can quickly improve the efficiency of energy replenishment, there is no possibility of a battle with the charging pile in the future.