WIRELESS VEHICLE RECHARGING TECHNOLOGY

[Anchor Lead]

As more and more electric cars are coming onto the road, there is growing interest in technologies to recharge the vehicles quickly and easily. Recently, South Korean scientists developed technologies to recharge running electric cars by wireless.

[Pkg]

This electric bus shuttles around the KAIST campus the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. It operates on electricity but chargers and linking wires are nowhere to be seen near the parking lot. This vehicle is recharged wireless, via coils installed on the ground. This technology eliminates the process of linking charging cables and saves people the trouble of queuing up for their turns.

[Soundbite] Cho Dong-ho(Wireless charging road developer) : "There is no need to look around for chargers. It can also be shared by many people at the same time. These benefits are quite good, compared to wired charging systems."

The continuous development of wireless charging technology has also led to an increase in patent applications. Over the past decade, 299 patent applications were issued in South Korea alone. The transmission-reception technology responsible for matching coils of vehicles and roads accounted for the largest portion of 56.6 percent with 169 applications submitted. Pricing systems that measure how much a vehicle is recharged constituted 20 percent. Technologies to minimize magnetic emissions accounted for 12 percent, followed by those detecting foreign substances at 11.4 percent.

[Soundbite] Choo Hyung-seok(Korean Intellectual Property Office) : "Wireless charging roads are a game-changer in the electric vehicle market. Competition will likely grow more fierce to obtain related patents in the future."

With the increased usage of electric cars, scientists are also ramping up efforts to develop wireless charging technologies that isn't limited by time and space constraints.