The transfer was over a distance of 5 inches.
I suppose it's marginally more convenient to simply park your car over a coil to charge it than to get out and plug it in, but is it really worth it?
Also let's keep in mind the claimed efficiency of 95%. That's very good for a wireless power transfer system but if we're talking about 270kW that's still 13.5kW which is getting converted in to heat in the system. That's more power being wasted than a standard home L2 EVSE on a 50A can even deliver, just to avoid plugging in a cable.
I could certainly see specific applications where it'd make sense, like city buses where the pads could be installed at bus stops allowing buses to run their loops effectively infinitely. I'm sure there are also plenty of industrial use cases where a vehicle is constantly moving around a job site but stopping regularly at specific locations. I don't see any reason to desire this as a consumer though.
Are there any electric cars which let you drive while plugged in? I own an EV and have driven a couple others. None of them allow you to leave park while plugged in. I also can't imagine how you'd manage to plug in incorrectly. Is this something people routinely do?
This is not possible.
> or not plugging in properly
This is not really a problem.
> or having otherwise damaged plugs, etc.
This is a real issue, businesses offering L2 charging as a convenience have little incentive to maintain their equipment and users often don't put the cables back in the dock when done, inviting damage. Fortunately there's already a solution widely used in other parts of the world, which is for the EVSE (the box most people call the charger that sits in between the mains and the EV and negotiates operating parameters with the actual charger in the car) to simply have a socket on it in to which a user plugs their own cable. This means there's no captive cable to be damaged, each user comes with their own that's in whatever condition they've gotten it in to, and it also makes the installs both smaller and cheaper so more spaces can be given access to power for the same cost.
SAE J3400, the standard that officially adopted the "NACS" connector, brings this to the US. It introduces the "Universal AC Socket-Outlet" where a compatible EVSE will have a J3068 connector, which is the three-phase AC charging standard and conveniently uses the same "Type 2" connector as most European EVs already have. The driver will then be expected to bring their own cable that goes from the J3068 outlet to whatever input their vehicle has, be it classic J1772, new J3400, or even a medium/heavy vehicle that natively accepts J3068 and can make use of three-phase power if available.
This means it's compatible with basically every mass production EV in North America other than the Nissan Leaf. A few of the older '90s EVs that used J1773 MagneCharge won't work either, but the Ranger EV and others that used the Avcon version of J1772 could technically be supported if someone made an appropriate cable.
- Reduce maintenance cost and increasing uptime of car charging parks by removing cabling and plugs operated by the user.
- Simplify integration of autonomous vehicles of different sizes - normal cars, smaller delivery vehicles etc, that could integrate with the same charging areas.
If/when the technology is mature enough for that, somebody will design a product around it. Only then it can evaluated from a consumer's perspective.
We don't need magical coil or car positioners, cars do a great job of moving themselves already. What we need is targeting. Similar to how automatic car washes work. Just a "move forward 6 inches .. 2 inches". Non-trivial but not an unacceptably high bar.
Then you could have a dead simple dropping mechanism to lower a charger down to charge - only within <5 inches of the roadway. When you drive off it can just retract like airplane wheels.
I actually like it more now.
I know nothing about this stuff though.