In Nottingham UK, the ‘Wireless Charging of Electric Taxis’ (WiCET) project has finally gone live, after almost three years in the making. Back in January 2020, the UK government announced funding for the project and it was awarded £3.4 million to install a testing base for wireless charging taxis and earlier this month, it started working.
A taxi rank in Nottingham has been converted to be able to charge electric and hybrid taxis, with nine already having been converted. So far, the taxis come from LEVC and Nissan. LEVC is the company responsible for the all new London cab, which uses some Volvo components. Those are already live in London and are mainly hybrid.
The charging pads have been installed at the main taxi rank near the train station in Nottingham. Five pads have been installed so far, with drivers being able to charge for any amount of time without the need to fiddle with cables and getting out of the car.
Based on the testing being done currently, the pads are 90% efficient and charging speeds are 10kW, similar to that of AC speeds.
