Wireless charging for Electic Vehicles

Project Information

UNPLUGGED

Grant agreement ID: 314126

Closed project

Start date 1 October 2012

End date 31 March 2015

Funded under

• Specific Programme "Cooperation": Transport (including Aeronautics)

Total cost € 3 576 692,25

EU contribution € 2 254 850,51

Coordinated by

FKA GMBH
Germany

Final Report Summary - UNPLUGGED (Wireless charging for Electic Vehicles)

Executive Summary:
Today, electric vehicles (EV) are having a hard time being accepted by the customer and diffusing in the market. Even though many aspects of EVs seem making them very appealing (e.g. very low energy cost and zero tail pipe emissions) there are several concerns that people have on this technology as Range anxiety, initial investment cost or frequency of recharging.

Inductive charging offers several advantages over the conductive (using a cable) charging method: easy operation, convenience, safety or advance V2G applications. These advantages already prove the use-fulness of (stationary) inductive charging compared to the currently more common conductive charging infrastructure. However inductive charging will offer many more possibilities in the future, especially con-cerning en-route charging.
UNPLUGGED project aimed to investigate how the use of inductive charging of Electric Vehicles (EV) in urban environments improves the convenience and sustainability of car-based mobility. In particular, it was investigated how smart inductive charging infrastructure could facilitate full EV integration in the urban road systems while improving customer acceptance and perceived practicality. UNPLUGGED achieved these goals by examining in detail the technical feasibility, practical issues, interoperability, user perception and socio-economic impacts of inductive charging. As one special variant, inductive en-route charging was investigated thoroughly.

The main results of UNPLUGGED have covered aspects as:

• 3,7 kW charging system operational prototype, tested for efficiency.
• 50 kW charging system operational prototype, considering two different vehicles, with different restrictions and conditions; the charger is able to give full power to both, improving flexibility.
• Communication modules (EVCC and SECC) are part of both inductive charging systems. One pair was installed in the 3,7 kW system and one pair in the 50 kW system as well.
• EMC aspects with the purpose of measuring the magnetic field (B-field) emissions coming from the inductive charging system and check their compliance.
• Interoperability aspects which is considered a key issue in the public and commercial acceptance of wireless power transfer for electric vehicles
• Technical and economic feasibility of wireless charging
• Power grid impact, with an evaluation of the grid impact for the inductive charging station designed during the project.
• Standardization aspects, covering the study of existing and on-going related standards for Wireless Power Transfer, both on the grid side as well as the vehicle side

As part of the project, a socio-economic impact has been also investigated, taking into account aspects as the environmental impact and the user propensity to move to a different mobility paradigm. As a result, the models show that in most cases, there is a financial gain to society that can be made from switching a vehicle fleet to electric vehicles and Unplugged electric vehicles. This financial gain is not accrued by individual vehicle owners, but by wider society as an environmental benefit.

In conclusion, the project has clearly met the initial expectations in terms of investigation because of the knowledge advancements that were reached. Actually, some of the partners have internally announced its willingness to commercialize their results. As consequence they are analyzing the proper IPR tools to cover their results and prepare the specific commercialization strategy that will be performed after Un-plugged project life.

Project Context and Objectives:
The most common method for EV charging is the usage of a cable plug-in system used either at home, at work or at specific charging stations spread across some cities. An alternative to this charging method is the wireless inductive charging. With this charging method it is possible to just position your car on a charging point and start the contactless charging process without any additional effort. Wireless charging offers the potential to charge the vehicle not only during longer parking phases. Wireless charging is also possible en-route at short stops e.g. at bus stops, taxi ranks and traffic lights or even while driving and hence decrease the size and cost of the battery.

In 2012 seventeen partners from different European countries started collaborating on several aspects of wireless charging within the UNPLUGGED project co-funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the EC. The common question to answer was how the use of inductive charging of Electric Vehicles in urban environments improves the convenience and sustainability of car-based mobility.

The partners in UNPLUGGED project developed and integrated two wireless charging systems for a pas-senger car and a commercial vehicle investigating several aspects including interoperability, efficiency and standardization. These two systems focused on two different power classes. Many technological details have been investigated, starting from an interoperable communication solution and ending with EMC measurements proving the safety of the wireless charging technology for the end user.

The potential of en-route charging has been assessed in various studies including economic and social facets.
Standardization can play an important role bringing new technology into the market. UNPLUGGED has not only seized ongoing standardization activities, but also actively contributed by extending existing standards on national and international level based on the research results created in the project.
UNPLUGGED is embedded into a group of several European research projects investigating wireless charging technology. FastInCharge project’s intention is to develop a cost-effective modular infrastructure offering a global solution for EV charging. The concept of FastInCharge is to create a highly performing inductive solution which will enable a 40 kW power transfer and in comparison to UNPLUGGED is more focused on the static en-route scenario. The main objective of FABRIC project is to conduct feasibility analysis of dynamic en-route charging technologies for long term electric vehicle range extension. FABRIC targets various types of vehicles, including passenger cars, light weight duty vehicles and heavy vehicles and buses. Appropriate charging solutions will be integrated and tested in different sites, covering an extensive part of Europe from Italy in the South, through France, to Sweden in the North.

Project Results:
The main achieved results out of the UNPLUGGED project is the development, production as well as real implementation of two inductive chargers: 3,7 kW and 50 kW. Both solutions contain a vehicle as well as grid implementation of the inductive charging technique.

An overview of the main results can be listed;

1) Communication concept for both solutions, concerning EMC aspects in as well as outside the vehicle
2) Coil developments for primary as wel as secondary side with respect to critical aspects as interoperability, EMC as well as standardisation
3) Vehicle implementation of 2 inductive charging prototypes
4) Assesment and analysis of interoperability aspects
5) Contribution to standardisation aspects

• WP1 - Development, construction and validation of inductive charging static & en-route demonstrators:
The goal of WP1 is to develop and evaluate two different inductive charging prototype solutions (later shown on a single demonstrator site in Zaragoza) with low and medium-high power transfer rates (possibly using only one standardized primary side) and also lay the groundwork for the following WPs. With the purpose in mind of later being able to integrate the demonstrator into both the vehicle and the road, all needs and restrictions will be defined. Building on those specifications, the demonstrator properties will be assigned and optimized using simulation tools. The prototype solutions will then be built with the found optimal properties and thoroughly tested to validate the simulations, give an overview over efficiency and limits of the system and rule out possible malfunction. After the completion of testing and validation within WP1 the prototype solutions will be used in the following WP2. All found data will be also available for WP3 to provide the proper information for the evaluation of the technology in the en-route application.
• WP2 - Integration and field testing of the demonstrator system:
The goal of work package 2 is to construct a prototype of inductive coupling charging station and demonstrate it in a private/ semi-public usage, assessing the interoperability and correct operation of the stationary part of the charging system with the different vehicles. Some additional objectives are as follows:
• To integrate the receiver part of the inductive coupling power transfer system into the vehicles architecture according to the UNPLUGGED design, addressing two different vehicles (maybe three) to study its flexibility and adequacy to different cars structure.
• To construct a prototype of the static part of the inductive charging power station, to further demonstrate its performance in a private/semi-public usage.
• To develop measurements and field tests to know the real performance of the prototype and the interoperability between the charging station and the different vehicles.
• To analyze the real behavior of the system and compare the pilot results with the theoretical studies, and to provide proposals for the system improvement.
• WP3 - Static and dynamic en-route inductive charging study:
The main objective of WP3 is the development of a simulation study for en-route inductive charging. The first activity will be the study of the state-of-the-art technologies for en-route charging and the technical solutions that will be needed to develop in order to have a functional system including both the advances in vehicle design and infrastructure. This study will be completed by an economic and social analysis to evaluate the business model sustainability of an en-route charging based mobility and its acceptance by the road users. In order to define such models the efficiency, the production costs and the constraints to its use will be analyzed within the WP.
• WP4 - Standardization:
The main objective of WP4 is to feed back the developments on the international standardization scene into the project technology development and to enhance the drafting of international standards with project technology findings

Potential Impact:
Socio economic impact has also been investigated within the project because any technology could be successful only if appreciated and useful for the end users. Parameters involved to investigate this issue are the impact on the environment and the user propensity to move to a different mobility paradigm. In this paragraph, the results of an online survey designed to investigate the social acceptance of wireless charging for EVs, undertaken by VUB and TRL in Belgium and the UK respectively, and an environmental impact assessment for the introduction of wireless charging technology in cities is presented.

Social acceptance of the wireless charging technology

Two approaches have been used to assess the social acceptance of the possible customers:

• a survey carried out by VUB based on the Living Labs project to seek high level opinions from EV trial participants in Belgium on their interest in wireless charging for EVs
• a TRL survey of EV trial participants and key UK stakeholders via an online survey to enable us-ers and stakeholders to offer opinions and information on wireless power transfers (WPT) for electric vehicles (EVs).

Overall, the majority of respondents seem to think that wirelessly charged vehicles are a good idea. Stakeholders may be slightly less optimistic about WPT vehicles and infrastructure than private users. This may be due stakeholders having more awareness of WPT and its possible drawbacks, for example possible high costs of infrastructure, versus potential benefits. Reduced running costs were highlighted as one of the main potential benefits for private users. Stakeholders saw reduction in CO2 and improved air quality as their key benefits.

In conclusion, the study demonstrates that the stakeholder group was slightly less positive than the pri-vate users group. All stakeholders were aware of wireless inductive charging before starting the ques-tionnaire. This may account for the slightly less positive response. Stakeholders are more aware of any possible issues or challenges relating to the uptake of wirelessly charged vehicles.

Socio-economic impact assessment conclusion

Investigated models show that in most cases, there is a financial gain to society that can be made from switching a vehicle fleet to electric vehicles and Unplugged electric vehicles. This financial gain is not accrued by individual vehicle owners, but by wider society as an environmental benefit.
The benefits are clearer for vans, buses and taxis than they are for cars. For each of the cases above, vans, buses and taxis show all negative cost difference indicating savings. Only the Barcelona bus fleet shows an increase in costs for all modelled percentages. For cars there are some cost increases, notice-ably for 20% penetration of Unplugged vehicles in Firenze. It is possible that this is due to car fleets being composed of a smaller percentage of diesel powered vehicles. The large majority of non-car fleets were composed of diesel vehicles, whilst the car fleets were composed of more petrol than diesel vehicles, so the air quality benefits of replacing them with EVs are lower.

As expected savings are modelled to be greater in real terms when fleets are modelled to have 20% EV or Unplugged EV.
The highest potential saving is modelled to be in Firenze for the van fleet, where approximately 7% cost savings may be obtained by switching to 20% EV or 20% Unplugged fleets.

When fleets are modelled to be 5% EV and 5% Unplugged, savings tend to be approximately 1%. De-pending on the size of the fleet and the capital costs these can still be significant amounts.

Comparing standard EVs with Unplugged EVs, the differences in the modelling figures are derived from the initial capital costs, which are currently estimated to be higher than for standard EVs. Therefore sav-ings are generally lower for Unplugged EVs than for standard EVs.

List of Websites:
The main information sources concerning the project are as follows:

Project website: www.unplugged-project.eu
Twitter account: @FP7UNPLUGGED
Linkedin Group: FP7 UNPLUGGED project
eMail: [e-mail]

The main project contacts are as follows
Project Coordinator: Axel Barkow / FKA Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen mbH Aachen
www.fka.de
[e-mail]
Communication Coordinator: David Quesada / ENIDE Solutions S.L. / www.enide.eu
[e-mail]