Just as we get used to seeing electric car chargers on the pavements of major towns and cities, the industry is already looking to the next big breakthrough - wireless vehicle charging.
Much like placing your smartphone on a charging pad each night instead of plugging it in, wireless car charging will fill your vehicle’s battery when you park over a charger on the ground beneath it.
No need to lift bulky cables out of the boot, and no need to actually have those cables with you in the first place. Just park and charge.
How does wireless electric vehicle charging work?
Charging cars without wires works in a similar way to the wireless phone charger you might already own, just on a bigger scale. You might have noticed how you can lift your phone very slightly off its charger without stopping the flow of electricity - wireless car chargers work in the same way, but in a distance measured in inches instead of millimeters.
Using a technology called inductive charging, electricity is transferred through an air gap from one magnetic coil in the charger to a second magnetic coil fitted to the car. All you have to do is park in the right place so the coils are aligned, and charging will begin.