A selection of taxis in Gothenburg, Sweden, operated by Cabonline, the largest taxi operator in the Nordic region of Europe, will be part of a pilot project to test wireless charging for electric vehicles for Volvo.
Operating a bit like the wireless phone chargers in many vehicles, the drivers using the wireless charging will simply have to park their vehicle to commence charging and don’t need to get out of it at all. Cabonline will receive Volvo XC40 Recharges with a special receiver that wirelessly connects to charging pads made by Momentum Dynamics that are embedded in the street.
“Gothenburg Green City Zone lets us try exciting new technologies in a real environment and evaluate them over time for a potential future broader introduction,” said Mats Moberg, head of Research and Development at Volvo Cars. “Testing new charging technologies together with selected partners is a good way to evaluate alternative charging options for our future cars.”
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The pad can charge a vehicle at up to 40 kW, which is nearly as quickly as DC fast-charging ports that work at 50 kW. It is also significantly faster than a regular 11 kW AC charger.
Drivers will get help lining their vehicles up with the pad using the 360-degree camera installed in the XC40 Recharge. The crossovers are expected to get a lot of use, as they are operated for in excess of 12 hours per day. Cabonline will drive the vehicles more than 100,000 km (62,000 miles) per year, making this an important testbed for Volvo’s EV technology in general, too.
The test is part of the Gothenburg Green City Zone initiative that Volvo announced its participation in last year. The initiative aims to transform the city’s transportation to 100 percent emissions-free by 2030.
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