If you ask us, the new technology of wireless charging is more of a miracle than Moses parting the sea. For one thing, the former is real, and you can now have it in smartphones and cars. Even something like the Kia Soul EV, which isn’t a fancy expensive car by any stretch of the imagination, could be equipped with this system. 

Well, it can’t yet, but very soon we will see applications of this technology on production electric cars form Kia and Hyundai. It hasn’t been easy equipping the Kia Soul EV with fast wireless charging capability, It has been a three-prong venture by Kia America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI), Mojo Mobility, Inc. (Mojo), and U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The system they have come up with, and successfully tested on five Soul EVs, is a compact wireless charging system that is capable of transferring more than 10 kW to the vehicle. It also boasts an 85 percent grid-to-vehicle efficiency which means there is very little waste of energy involved. And in case you thought this was witchcraft, here’s an extremely simplified explanation of how it works: “the system works by using an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two coils—a transmitter on the ground and a receiver on the bottom of the vehicle.” You just park the car above the transmitter and voila, you get charged up.

“We’re thrilled with the success of the system and its efficiency,” said William Freels, HATCI President. “We set out to develop wireless charging that has real world applications and is easy to use for the consumer. Now, with this fleet of wireless Soul EVs, we can clearly see a future of unplugged electric vehicles.”