Trials of wireless charging for taxis in Nottingham begin

Wireless charging bays for electric taxis are currently being tested in Nottinghamshire, marking a first for inductive charging in the UK.

Construction began on Trent Street back in July ahead of trials for wireless charging for hackney cabs, situated in the rank nearby Nottingham Station. The project is believed to be a UK first to trial wireless technology with electric taxis.

Nottingham City Council shared a ‘visualisation’ video of the electric cabs being charged in designated bays, with the charging powered by wireless charging firm WiCET.

Wireless Charging of Electric Taxis (WiCET) is a £3.4 million project funded by Office for Zero Emission Vehicles through Innovate UK to assess the commercial and technical viability of deploying wireless charging for electric Hackney Carriages.

Sign-ups are open for local hackney cab drivers who wish to receive a free loan of one of the nine electric and hybrid taxis (five LEVC TX and four Nissan Dynamo) retrofitted with wireless charging technology as part of the project.

Work will continue over the coming weeks to complete the installation and testing at Trent Street. Local cabbies will be able to experience the technology for themselves in the coming weeks when the trial goes live.

The project is led by Cenex, with partners Coventry University, Hangar-19, Nottingham City Council, Shell Research Limited, Sprint Power and Transport for London, with Lumen Freedom supplying the hardware.