Electromagnetic Compatibility Evaluation of Wireless Charging Systems for Public Spaces: Wireless Power Transfer for Taxis

Almost worldwide, various agreements and regulations have been enacted and vigorously enforced to address long-lasting climate change. Public transport with conventional combustion engines is affected by driving bans in restricted areas in cities. Nevertheless, electric vehicles relying solely on conductive charging are not suitable for all applications, e.g., taxis. That is due to the high daily route distances and the irregular waiting periods in queues (taxi on demand). As a solution to this problem, wireless charging for taxis in public spaces has been developed and realized in the project TALAKO. In this context, a guaranteed safeguarding of electromagnetic environmental compatibility (EMCE) is essential so that the developed system is not a hazard to the health of humans and animals. This article addresses the investigation of the resulting magnetic fields in the context of wireless power transfer (WPT) for taxis in public areas using numerical simulation methods. Furthermore, the analyses are compared by field measurements. For the investigations, several scenarios are considered (one charging taxi in two parking positions, two taxis in a row charging simultaneously in one parking position, and two different human models). The measurements are used to support the simulation results. The WPT system developed in the TALAKO project does not pose any risk to the general population for the scenarios applied by complying with the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) recommendations.