Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/electric-vehicle-technologies

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Online electric vehicle

Type of electric vehicle

Online electric vehicle

Type of electric vehicle

OLEV bus in service

On-Line Electric Vehicle or OLEV is an electric vehicle system developed by KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which charges electric vehicles wirelessly while moving using inductive charging. Segments composed of coils buried in the road transfer energy to a receiver or pickup that is mounted on the underside of the electric vehicle, which powers the vehicle and charges its battery.

KAIST launched a shuttle service using the technology in 2009. The first public bus line that uses OLEV was launched on March 9, 2010; another bus line was launched in Sejong in 2015; two more bus lines were added in Gumi in 2016; all four wireless charging bus lines were shut down due to aging infrastructure. A new bus line was inaugurated in 2019 in Yuseong District. Commercialization of the technology has not been successful, leading to controversy over the continued public funding of the technology in 2019.

The technology was selected as one of Time's 50 best inventions of 2010. KAIST and Electreon have been working on a standard for dynamic wireless charging in 2021 and 2022.

Technology

The On-Line Electric Vehicle system is split into two main parts: buried segments of inductive power transmitters in the road, and inductive receiver modules on the underside of the vehicle. The use of charging while driving eliminates the need for charging stations, but its installation is costly, and current implementations are limited to 60 mph.

The power transmitters in the road may be buried 30 cm underground and composed of ferrite cores (magnetic cores used in induction) with coils wrapped around them, arranged on both sides of a central column. The primary coils are placed in segments across certain spans of the road so that only about 5% to 15% of the road needs to be dug up and resurfaced for installation. To power the primary coils, cables are attached to the power grid through a power inverter. The inverter accepts 60 Hz 3-phase 380 or 440 voltage from the grid to generate 20 kHz of AC electricity into the cables. The cables create a 20 kHz magnetic field that sends flux through the slim ferrite cores to the pick-ups on the OLEV.

Attached beneath the vehicle are receivers or pick-up modules, known as secondary inductive coils. The flux from the transmitters, or primary coils, transfers energy to the receivers, or secondary coils, and each pick-up gains about 17 kW of power from the induced current. A regulator distributes the power to the engine and the battery, charging the vehicle wirelessly while driving.

ModelWeightPrimary coil core shapeSecondary coil core shapeAir gapPower efficiencyPower per receiver (kW)Power per receiver (hp)Primary coil currentAdditional mechanisms
Generation 1 (Small Cart)10 kgE shapeE shape1 cm80%3 kW4.02Hp100 Amp3mm vertical alignment mechanism
Generation 2 (Bus)80 kgU shapeLong, flat17 cm72%6 kW8.04Hp200 AmpReturn cables for primary coils
Generation 3 (SUV)110 kgSlim W shapeWide W shape17 cm71%17 kW22.79Hp200 AmpNone

For the Generation 1 OLEV, if the primary and secondary coils are vertically misaligned by a distance over 3mm, the power efficiency drops greatly. In Generation 2 OLEV, the current in the primary coil was doubled to create a stronger magnetic field that allows for a larger air gap. The ferrite cores in the primary coils were changed to a U shape and the cores in the secondary coil were changed a flat board shape. This design allows the vertical misalignment to be about 20 cm with a 50% power efficiency. However, the U-shaped cores also require return cables, which bumps up the cost of production. The third-generation OLEV uses ultra-slim W-shaped ferrite cores in the primary coil to reduce the amount of ferrite used to 1/5 of gen 2 and to remove the need of return cables. The secondary coil uses a thicker variation of the W-shaped cores as a way to make up for the lesser area for the magnetic flux to flow through compared to gen 2.

References

References

  1. Ridden, Paul. (August 20, 2009). "Korean electric vehicle solution". New Atlas.
  2. H. Feng, R. Tavakoli, O. C. Onar and Z. Pantic, "Advances in High-Power Wireless Charging Systems: Overview and Design Considerations," in IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 886-919, Sept. 2020, {{doi. 10.1109/TTE.2020.3012543.
  3. Salmon, Andrew. (2010-10-03). "Korea unveils the 'future of transport' — the Online Electric Vehicle". [[The Times]].
  4. "Smart Wireless Power Transfer Technology". [[Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology]].
  5. 권명관. (July 22, 2021). "[모빌리티 인사이트] 도로 위만 달려도 전기차를 충전합니다, 일렉트리온".
  6. Kwak Yeon-soo. (24 March 2019). "ICT minister nominee accused of wasting research money". [[The Korea Times]].
  7. (2010-11-15). "KAIST's Road-Embedded Recharger Named Among Best Inventions of 2010". [[The Chosun Ilbo]].
  8. Rachelle Dragani. (December 11, 2010). "Road-Embedded Rechargers - The 50 Best Inventions of 2010 - TIME".
  9. (23 February 2021). "Electric Road Systems - PIARC Online Discussion - 17 February 2021".
  10. Fazal, Rehan. (October 9, 2013). "Online Electric Vehicle".
  11. (2011). "Design of On-Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV)". Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  12. (March 9, 2010). "S.Korea unveils 'recharging road' for eco-friendly buses". [[The Times]].
  13. (May 1, 2014). "2014 IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference".
  14. Yoon, Lan. (2013-08-07). "KAIST's wireless Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) runs inner city roads". Kaist.
  15. "Interdisciplinary Design: Proceedings of the 21st CIRP Design Conference". Mary Kathryn Thompson.
  16. (September 1, 2010). "2010 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition".
  17. "ABB demonstrates technology to power flash charging electric bus in 15 seconds".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Online electric vehicle — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report