Two Way Plug

BMW and innovation giants Siemens are teaming up to boost their green credentials by developing an inductive charging system for electric car batteries.

The charging routine would take advantage of non-contact technology with literally no strings attached. A driver could, the idea goes, simply rest his vehicle over a charge point and wait in comfort while the battery is topped up.  

The charging station is connected to the public grid by the primary coil that remains underground.  A second coil would be attached to the car, with a distance of roughly eight to fifteen centimetres between the two.  An electric current will then rush through the primary coil, pour out of the second, and into the car battery while the driver remains in position.

Siemens claim electricity is transmitted from the grid to the battery at an efficiency of more than 90 per cent.

The project will be debuted in Berlin, Germany in June 2011. If successful, it is hoped more drivers will look to battery powered vehicles as the immediate solution to today’s gas guzzlers. Electric cars have yet to fully escape the “Top Gear” sponsored stigmas of the past and it is hoped a more convenient method for re-charging may help dispel these inherited disgraces.