WiTricity expanded its global footprint with the addition of a new product development center near Zurich, Switzerland. The team, formerly of Qualcomm Halo, brings 50 years of combined EV wireless charging experience to WiTricity. The WiTricity Switzerland Development Center (SDC) will focus on product R&D and commercialization of wireless electric vehicle charging and will provide expert support to OEMs and Tier 1s both in the region and globally. Additionally, with WiTricity’s recent acquisition of Qualcomm Halo, the company has extended its relationship with the wireless charging research labs and commercial licensing arm of the University of Auckland in New Zealand. This global expansion comes just weeks after WiTricity announced its acquisition of Qualcomm Halo, through which WiTricity now controls over 1,500 patents and patent applications related to wireless EV charging, now also including intellectual property generated at the University of Auckland.
“The EV wireless charging industry is ready to go. The progress we have made at WiTricity with global automakers, coupled with our acquisition of Qualcomm Halo and this new global expansion creates a clear path for automakers and Tier 1s to bring wireless EV charging to market,” said Alex Gruzen, CEO, WiTricity. “Expanding our product development footprint in Europe is key to completing the wireless EV charging solution and supporting our licensees’ needs. The research team at the University of Auckland has a unique history of wireless EV charging research that perfectly complements everything we’ve been doing at WiTricity. I’m excited and proud to welcome more of the industry’s best and brightest to our global team of experts to make wireless EV charging readily available.”
“The University is very excited to be working with WiTricity. Bringing together the two premier generators of innovative solutions that will make electric and autonomous vehicles a reality for the next decade and beyond makes perfect sense.” The University of Auckland and WiTricity have long driven the research and development that makes wireless charging a reality,” said Will Charles, the executive director for commercialization at UniServices, the commercialization company of the University of Auckland. “In addition, as the University of Auckland has a long history of researching wireless charging on campus, it has also integrated collaboration across campus that will bring novel new developments both in power electronics and beyond. These include dynamic vehicle charging (on the move) and the integration and use of novel materials both for the primary and secondary side, bi-directional charging and other electricity load management technologies for all stakeholders in the electric vehicle ecosystem.”
Grant Covic, a professor at the University of Auckland, said “Our passion has always been to develop a technology that can make a genuine difference in the market by helping to break down barriers to adoption of Electric Vehicles and the transition to a greener economy. We know the team at WiTricity has a similar genuine passion and belief in this technology and the engineering skill and focus to see it taken up. As such we are equally excited about working with WiTricity to realize the full potential of the technology, particularly with wireless charging so close to being adopted on future electric vehicles. We also believe that together we have solutions that can be further developed and used to meet future market needs.”
WiTricity makes EV charging as simple as parking your car, helping realize a future of transportation that is electrified, shared and autonomous.
