Toyota Motor and WiTricity Form Wireless Charging Alliance

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) said today in Japan that it has entered into a technology sharing agreement with U.S. based WiTricity Corporation. The world’s largest automaker will explore the practical application of automotive wireless charging systems and the promotion of their use, TMC said in a statement. TMC plans to help WiTricity increase its capital, but financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

WiTricity’s charging technology uses “resonance,” which in theory allows charging without direct contact between devices. Company promotional materials claim that this is more efficient than electromagnetic-induction, another wireless technology, albeit one that requires contact as used on General Motors’ EV1 recharging system. 

Resonance comes about when the magnetic fields of two devices have closely matched “resonant frequencies” that can couple into a single continuous magnetic field. This allows the transfer of power from one device to the other at high efficiency and over distances that are useful for real-world applications. This “strong coupling” enables the devices to exchange energy via magnetism, and avoids the potential safety hazards and inefficiency often associated with radiated electro-magnetic energy, according to WiTricity.

TMC said the collaboration is aimed to accelerate development and eventual implementation of wireless charging for automobiles so that the charging of a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle could be as simple and convenient as parking near an embedded charger at a home or in a parking facility.

WiTricity Corporation was founded in 2007 to commercialize a new technology for wireless electricity invented two years earlier at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).