City EV Woes May Be Solved by a "Pizza Box" Sized Charging Pad

A New York-based startup is attempting to make charging your EV as easy as throwing your phone onto a charging pad at the end of the day. HEVO works by installing a charging slab the size of a pizza box into a bit of pavement or garage. The slab will then charge any compatible car parked on top of it. While it’s early days, the potential is pretty obvious. There’s convenience for EV owners, and a potential solution to the lack of proper charging infrastructure in major cities. The latter is particularly important as governments look to make EV charging easier. The charger is also highly resistant to vandalism, another issue that has plagued public charging stations. It’s also less prone to wear than cables that are constantly being moved, plugged in, and removed.

Speaking to Guessing Headlights, HEVO CEO Jeremy McCool explained who his company is planning to sell its system to: “HEVO’s system is engineered to benefit everyday EV drivers, but the customer base is business-to-business: primarily automakers, fleet operators, and government agencies. We are not a consumer gadget company; we’re an infrastructure and vehicle technology platform.”

Despite this, McCool did confirm that the charger could be installed in a garage by a professional electrician if you do manage to buy one. HEVO isn't the only company developing a wireless EV charging platform, but they do claim to be the most advanced. Alongside solid-state batteries, wireless charging is arguably one of the innovations the electric vehicle market needs to take things to the next level.

Of course, there’s more to it than just installing charging pads. Just as a smartphone has to have Qi charging hardware inside of it to work with a wireless charger, vehicles will need to be fitted with hardware before they work with HEVO’s chargers.

That may be happening in factories over the next few years. HEVO claims to have signed “strategic partnership and early supplier involvement agreements” with up to four unnamed major manufacturers. According to McCool, those agreements may lead to the tech appearing in cars fairly soon.

“We’ve secured formal agreements that involve co-developing integrated wireless EV charging solutions for upcoming vehicle platforms, with production targeting the 2027–2029 Timeframe,” McCool says.

There is also the option of retrofitting existing vehicles with the parts needed to support wireless charging. However, that also requires manufacturers to be involved, as unofficial modifications may “void warranties or trigger compatibility issues with the vehicle's battery management system.” So while it hasn't been ruled out, HEVO has its eyes on new vehicles for now.

HEVO is launching a public funding campaign on May 2.