Electric vehicles have several advantages over vehicles with diesel or petrol-driven motors, but having to plug them in every day isn’t one of them.
Luckily, drivers might soon not need to worry about that, as carmakers are expected to release wireless charging pads for electric cars based on a universally agreed-upon standard in less than a year.
The chargers work similarly to wireless smartphone chargers: you roll the vehicle on top of the pad, and the car starts charging — without the need of plugging it in. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for drivers to charge their EVs and to standardize future wireless charging spots both in public and at home.
To get there, the Society of Automotive Engineers came up with a standard (SAE J2954) that is in its final stages of development. Now all that is left from the part of manufacturers is to convince municipalities that the conveniences of such gadgetry are worth the costs.