Genesis’ wireless EV charging pilot aims to explore viability of ‘hands-free’ charging

South Korean car firm Genesis has started a wireless EV charging trial at various sites across Seoul to explore how the method of charging may work in the future.

As part of a pilot project running to June 2023, 23 specific wireless chargers have been installed, and 22 Genesis cars – including its GV60 and Electrified GV70 – modified to allow for wireless charging.

The cars have been altered with a special receiver pad installed underneath the car. When arriving at one of the specific chargers, guidelines in the car’s touchscreen show exactly the right position the vehicle needs to be parked in over a ‘base pad’ for the car to pick up a magnetic field to generate charge.

Once parked correctly, the charge begins automatically with no need to get out of the car to plug in or set up payment, as this is charged directly to an account linked to the vehicle. The car is parked in forwards, with the positioning of the charger allowing you to easily see the charger and its status.

Marc Choi, vice president and product officer of Genesis, said: “The technology is very ahead of regulation, so the intention was to expand it to a public-purchased product, but we felt that without meeting the government relations fully, we didn’t want to introduce a half-complete product into the market and get the feedback from the customer as a guineapig.

“So at the moment, we’re charging wireless charging with some commercial partners and getting data from them to see if it’s viable in the future.”

Currently, the chargers are rated at 11kW, which would take around eight hours to charge a GV60, but Genesis says it wants to increase the charging speed before it could be rolled out.

Choi added: “We also want to focus on the speed. It’s currently maxing out at 11kW, but we feel this is a bit slow and want to wait until it’s faster so it can be mass-adopted. We’re continuously looking to work with partners and government.”