Qualcomm announced in November 2011 a Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) trial in London to commence in 2012 that is supported by a cross section of stakeholders from government departments and agencies, to commercial and private sector enterprises. The objectives of the trial are to evaluate the commercial viability of wireless EV charging and gain user feedback on the use of WEVC enabled vehicles.

‘We are very excited to be working with Renault, a global leader in Electric Vehicles and an innovator in the growing low carbon vehicle market,’ said Anthony Thomson, VP, Business Development and Marketing at Qualcomm. ‘Renault’s participation in the WEVC London trial and Qualcomm’s drive to make charging of electric vehicles simple and effortless means that EV drivers will have access to technology that makes EV charging easy,’ he added.

‘Our participation in the WEVC London trial with Qualcomm complements Renault’s European research & development project involving 10 partners to demonstrate wireless inductive charging of electric vehicles in a public environment with a high level of performance and safety,’ said Jacques Hebrard, VP Energy and Environment Advanced Projects Director at Renault. ‘The deployment of wireless inductive charging requires inter-operability between cars and ground systems within common European and, hopefully, worldwide standards,’ he added.