A technology that charges electric cars without the need for cables is being tested as part of the UK's largest public trial of ultra-low emission vehicles.

Two Citroen C1 models fitted with the inductive system as well as a standard plug-in charger will form part of the Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators (CABLED) consortium testing programme, which comes under the umbrella of the Technology Strategy Board's £25m Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator competition.

Designed by New Zealand start-up HaloIPT and backed by international engineering firm Arup, the system was introduced to the UK in October and allows cars to charge while parked on a pad.

The firm maintains that the technology could ultimately be installed on roads, and at garages and car parks, providing seamless recharging of electric vehicles.

The first public deployment will see a HaloIPT charging system installed at the motorist's home or work, although drivers also have a backup option provided by the CABLED public charge points installed by E.ON across Birmingham and Coventry city centres.

Data from the trial is expected to be used to analyse how electric vehicle motorists use wireless charging at home or at the office, but HaloIPT chief executive Anthony Thomson has more ambitious aspirations that could one day see cars charge up while driving.

"This is the first phase of an ambitious future programme to demonstrate the central role that wireless charging will play in the widespread adoption of electric vehicles," he said.

"In the longer term we are striving towards embedding highways with charge pads to enable 'dynamic charging', which will allow charging of vehicles in motion.

"Dynamic charging has the ability to change the way the public view electric vehicles by completely removing the need to stop and charge. We want to free the electric car."

Mitsubishi completed the first part of the CABLED project last December, following 12-month trials of 25 i-MiEVs. Additional vehicles in the trials include the Tata Indica Vista, the smart fortwo electric drive, Jaguar Land Rover's Range_e and hydrogen urban cars from Micro:cab.

businessgreen.com