Evatran announced Monday, in cooperation with Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), that it has been awarded a subcontract under ORNL’s DOE Project, “Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) and Charging of Plug-In Electric Vehicles.”
The three-year project, opened in October of 2012, covers high power wireless charging technology integration into electric vehicles currently on-sale in select US markets. Evatran’s knowledge of efficient wireless power transfer, system controls, and intuitive user interfaces coupled with the Company’s documented success in prototype field trials led ORNL to select the three year-old, Virginia-based start up for inclusion.
Utilizing strong technical knowledge out of its office in the Research Triangle Park area of Raleigh, Evatran will focus on vehicle integration and supply production designs for the Project Team.
The project team, led by ORNL, also includes two major international automotive manufacturers, Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), Cisco, and Duke Energy.
After a first year of design research, the team will integrate 6.6kW and 10 kW designs into six production electric vehicles during the second year of the project. The third year of the project will see those vehicles placed into the field for limited field trials. The project team will install static wireless charging systems and show capability for dynamic wireless charging (wireless charging while vehicle is in motion).
“This is our area of expertise,” commented Rebecca Hough, Evatran CEO and co-founder. “We’ve spent the last three years focusing on how to efficiently and safely integrate wireless charging systems into electric vehicles. The information and learnings gathered from our field trials will be extremely valuable in helping ORNL to create an efficient, low cost production design. We couldn’t be more excited to work with such strong industry leaders on this initiative to bring wireless charging into the mainstream.”
