BMW Motorrad is looking into adopting the latest technologies into the future electric bikes, but one particular tech that they’ve patented caught the most attention; wireless charging. It’s probably still in its infant stages but the ability to recharge a vehicle without having to take out the cable seems very interesting for a lot of folks.
Solving the issue on how to minimise hassle when charging electric bikes at home is the main goal. More often than not, bikes are more likely to be stored indoors in garages due to its size and here’s where BMW feels that they can tackle the issue with the greatest of conveniences.
Wireless charging has long been adopted for modern high-end smartphones and the latest BMW filed patent looks more or less similar to that particular technology. How are they planning to do this? By upgrading the bike’s stand into the main contact point (receiver) to kickstart the wireless charging mechanism.
A wireless charging pad (like those provided together with the high-end smartphones) will be the connection point between the bike’s internal battery and the home’s charging facility. In other words, owners will only have to roll into the garage, kick the stand out, and just place it on the pad to recharge the bike. No wires, no cables, no hassle.
When wireless charging is compared directly to cables plugged into today’s smartphones, users will have noticed that the charging time takes slightly longer. This is the same issue that BMW is trying to tackle in the new patent so that its wireless charging technology can recharge sufficiently when their future electric bikes are parked at home.
This very technology can also be adopted for the conventional petrol-powered bikes where the main issue that always stems from not being able to start up the bike is a weak battery. There are dozens of products in the current market like built-in battery tenders that helps to extend the health of a bike’s battery but with this new tech, stories of weak or dead batteries will soon be a thing of the past. Cool.
