Yesterday, BMW announced their second year partnership with Formula E. BMW will supply a series of official cars for the electric cars championship, including a BMW i8 Safety Car. Qualcomm Technologies teamed up with BMW to work on the i8 and one of the latest features will be the wireless charging technology.
The BMW i8 will be charged wirelessly with an advanced Qualcomm Halo 7.2kW wireless charging system. The Qualcomm Halo 7.2kW wireless charging system delivers twice the amount of energy to the BMW i8’s batteries per hour as compared to last year’s 3.6kW system. The system employs Qualcomm Halo DD technology, with magnetic architecture optimization, ensures higher coupling coefficients and drives lower system currents, higher inefficiencies and the ability to support higher power levels.
A Qualcomm spokesman said that an open championship has encouraged teams to develop their own powertrain tech. This ensures that the racing remains highly competitive, and it supports the goal of Formula E to advance the development of new technologies for electric vehicles and to bring those technologies, vital to sustainable mobility, to the attention of millions of people around the globe, a spokesman said.
Qualcomm’s general manager of wireless charging, Steve Pazol said Qualcomm was excited to continue its support of Formula E in this second season.
“Qualcomm is showcasing its innovative new technologies within the Championship and using the motorsport platform to accelerate the development of automotive technologies, which is perfectly illustrated by the wireless charging technology fitted to the new BMW i8 Safety Car.”
The second season of the race series gets underway in Beijing on 17 October 2015.
