Toyota Joins with Tech Company WiTricity To Develop Wireless Charging

WiTricity has not an iota to do with Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, Washington. Nor is it the county-fair touring incarnation of Quad City DJs, formed after they failed to follow up �C�Mon N� Ride It (The Train)� with another smash hit. Rather, the Massachusetts company is following up on Nikola Tesla�s promise of supplying electricity via thin air. Using magnetic fields to carry juice, WiTricity claims their technology is scalable from milliwatts (for say, a wireless mouse) to kilowatts (appropriate for, oh, you know, EVs.)

WiTricity has already done work for several automakers and suppliers, partnering recently with Delphi for a wireless charging system that the latter displayed at the SAE World Congress this past month. Now, WiTricity and Toyota have announced that they�ll be working together as well, collaborating on developing wireless charging systems. Aside from the gee-whiz factor for salesmen���And you never have to plug it in!� tech like WiTricity�s carries implications for wider charging infrastructure in public spaces. Buff the mind�s eyeball with a virtual third rail. Imagine life-size, virtual Scalectrix.

While we doubt the system will be ready to hit the market in time for the upcoming plug-in-electric Prius�which, perhaps, would need to be called the park-over-the-mat-electric Prius�we imagine that once wireless charging hits the EV scene, nobody will reminisce fondly about the days of plugging your electric car into an extension cord.