A startup clean technology company has outfitted a Chevrolet Volt with a wireless charging system, according to the company’s CEO.
Andrew Daga, also principal founder of the Pennsylvania-based company, said Momentum Dynamics has developed a unique and proprietary technology system that uses the electrical grid to recharge vehicles automatically without the use of a wire or owner assistance.
The system, which is expected to cost less than $10,000 as an aftermarket kit, is attached to the vehicle. When the vehicle is parked over a special charging mat, the vehicle automatically begins charging.
Daga said the company wanted to equip a Chevrolet Volt with the technology rather than an all-electric vehicle because the passenger vehicle is the "most complicated" on the market. He said starting with the most tech-savvy products should help the company implement the technology of other vehicles easier.
"It’s part of our idea of retiring the most complicated risks first," he told MLive.com following a panel presentation Tuesday during the Commercial Vehicle Megatrends USA 2012 conference in Dearborn. “By learning about a more complicated vehicle early, we solved those problems faster, or earlier, then we go onto less complicated vehicles and find ourselves having an easier time doing it."
Daga said the company’s first target market is commercial and fleet vehicles, because there is minimal competition and it is easier to implement the technology in controlled settings.
“It works with cars, or with buses, or any other vehicles,” he said. “They all get recognized and the power is modulated independently."
The company, according to Daga, will have a fleet of about five buses out later this year for Enterprise Rent-A-Car at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif., Duke University and Berks County, Pa.
“We’re trying to do clean green initiatives in university settings, where students are really demanding that the university move in that direction,” he said. “These are perfectly silent, perfectly clean electric buses that will carry students back and forth all-day long.”
Daga said Momentum Dynamics – founded in 2009 – is working with “numerous” suppliers and automakers about integrating the technology into their electric vehicles.
According to Daga, the company will have three Volts equipped with the wireless charging systems by the end of the year.
A General Motors Co. representative was not immediately available for comment.
Momentum Dynamics, which was awarded a $587,000 grant from the Pennsylvani Department of Environmental Protection’s Alternative Fuel Incentive Grant program, hopes to eventually adapt the technology to charge while the vehicle is stopped or moving, according to Daga.
“It could eventually work up to 20, 30 40, miles per hour or even as the vehicle approaches a red light,” he said. “There are many moving vehicle applications to this that we will eventually be going into.”
Daga said the company's wireless charging technology can outperform a level 3 plug-in charging system.
Daga was on a panel with Stephen Ptucha, Westport Power Inc. director of product management; Craig Jacobs, Eaton Corp. hybrids chief engineer; Larry Fuehrer, BAE Systems business development manager; and Corey Taylor, Castrol senior development technologist.
For more information about the wireless charger see MLive.
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