A high-power wireless charging system development and integration for a Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle

Several wireless charging methods are under development or available as an aftermarket option in the light-duty automotive market. However, there are not many studies detailing the vehicle integrations, particularly a fully integrated vehicle application. This paper presents the development, implementation, and vehicle integration of a high-power (>10 kW) wireless power transfer (WPT)-based electric vehicle (EV) charging system for a Toyota RAV4 vehicle. The power stages of the system are introduced with the design specifications and control systems including the active front-end rectifier with power factor correction (PFC), high frequency power inverter, high frequency isolation transformer, coupling coils, vehicle side full-bridge rectifier and filter, and the vehicle battery. The operating principles of the overall wireless charging system as well as the control system are presented. The physical limitations of the system are also defined that would prevent the system from operating at higher levels. The system performance is shown for two cases including unmatched (interoperable) and matched coils. The experiments are carried out using the integrated vehicle and the results are obtained to demonstrate the system performance including the stage-by-stage efficiencies with matched and interoperable primary and secondary coils.