A research group led by Associate Professor Hiroshi Fujimoto of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, has developed an in-wheel motor that can be wirelessly powered from the road while an electric vehicle is running, in collaboration with Bridgestone, Nippon Seiko, Rohm, and Toyo Denki Seizo. , Succeeded in running experiment.The research group will continue to make improvements in the future, aiming to move to the demonstration experiment stage in 2025.
According to the University of Tokyo, the research group has developed a tire that does not interfere with power supply, and prototyped a vehicle in which all the functions from power reception to driving required for an electric vehicle, such as a power receiving coil, are placed inside the tire.We succeeded in running experiments at the University of Tokyo Kashiwa Campus Experiment Station in Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture.
The prototype vehicle in 2017 was a mini vehicle class with a motor performance of 1 kW per wheel, while the prototype vehicle this time is a passenger car class with 12 kW per wheel, and the wireless power supply capacity is also that of the previous vehicle. The performance has been improved from about 1 kW to about 25 kW per wheel.
As a result, if a power supply system is installed on a part of the road in front of the traffic light, the electric vehicle can move without worrying about charging.Automakers around the world are focusing on developing electric vehicles, but they have to produce large quantities of batteries, and there is a need to develop wireless power supplies that require smaller capacity batteries.
