So You’re Saying I Can Wirelessly Charge my EV?
Episode 07
My guest today is Amy Barzdukas, CMO of WiTricity. Amy is responsible for leading global marketing for WiTricity and is crucial in guiding the company through its next wave of growth as its patented wireless charging solutions become commercially available.
On this episode, Amy and I chat about the exciting technology WiTricity is developing – completely wireless charging for EVs. Amy dives into how it works and most importantly, what it means for EV users, communities, cities and more!
Episode Highlights
(0:00) – Introduction
(0:39) – Beginning of the interview
(1:20) – Amy opens up about WiTricity and how she’s helping the EV user
(2:32) – The technology behind WiTricity
(4:01) – The use case for communities and municipalities
(6:32) – Does climate affect where you can use this technology?
(8:58) – What are some things that won some skeptical customers over?
(11:01) – Upcoming events for Amy in 2023
(12:10) – Episode wrap-up
Transcript
Elena: Hi, Amy, how are you this afternoon or this morning? How are you? It’s great to see you.
Amy: Great to see you as well and happy to be here.
Elena: I am so happy you agreed to be on the show because I am number one a super fan of yours ever since we met back in October at AutoTech Detroit you did a phenomenal presentation all about the EV paradigm shift. And first of all your slides were amazing, I just have to give you kudos there and I just loved everything you had to say. So before I get a little bit too over the top fan girling about Amy. Amy would love for you to talk about WiTricity and what are the problems that you’re solving for the EV owner because there are many.
Amy: Yes so WiTricity is all about accelerating EV adoption by getting rid of the hassle of charging. So a lot of times I start saying that and the first thing somebody will say was well, okay, but how hard is it really to plug in your car? And I usually come back with well I don’t know. How often do you still get up and cross your living room to change the channel on the TV? Or how often do you have to step around your kids leaning up against the wall in the kitchen talking on the only phone that’s in the house? Right? Everything that can go wireless does and wireless charging for EVs just makes a ton of sense.
Elena: Yeah. And speaking of which, you have a phenomenal background a Zoom background where you can see the at home wireless charging WiTricity mechanism. It is amazing. And if you’re listening or you’re listening to this while you’re driving, you will have to just like take a look at it on the website because it is really cool. Walk me through a little bit Amy of the technology how it’s connected. I am not a very technical engineering type person. So you need to like just make it very, very simple.
Amy: So there’s three key elements to the wireless charging system for EVs. One is a receiver or receiving coil that goes in the vehicle itself in the future that will be installed by OEMs. As the cars are rolling off the factory. Today we can do the upgrades so we’re able to upgrade existing electric vehicles to be able to have that receiver then there is the charging pad which goes either on or in the ground, that you would just park over and then you don’t need to do anything – you’re charging because there is a magnetic resonance connection set up between those two coils. They don’t interfere with anything around them. It’s perfectly safe for pacemakers, no problems whatsoever invisible to rain, snow, whatever. So it’s able to charge in all weather in all situations. And the last of the three pieces is what you see behind me is the wall box. And that’s where the power electronics sit that takes the energy from the grid and converts it into DC energy that ultimately goes into your battery.
Elena: It’s really fascinating technology. And can you talk a little bit more about what the use case would be for communities or municipalities? I know that you know we’re talking about the at home I have my vehicle I’m charging it in the garage, which by the way is absolutely genius. And yes, I would be one of those people to forget to charge my EV because I’ve done it where I’ve forgotten to charge it overnight. Talk to me a little bit more about what WiTricity is doing for municipalities for public charging infrastructure.
Amy: There’s a lot of places where public charging today has challenges. The cords and cables in traditional chargers have a lot of things in them that make them vulnerable to vandalism and theft and they endure a lot of dropped damage. People tend to drive over that people drive into them. And so what we’re able to do with wireless charging is the charging pad can be in the ground. So there’s nothing for a snowplow to destroy or for somebody to be able to access to steal and then the power electronics can literally be hidden you can imagine that there is a bunch of planters power electronics could be in the planters or they could be in a you know a substation looking kind of a container away from where the snow plows go. So we’ve come up with a solution that makes a lot of sense in urban environments for street side parking, municipal parking, and it’s also can then be free of visual pollution. So a lot of places aren’t particularly keen on charing stations -They’ve got a beautiful picturesque downtown, and they don’t want to clutter it up with a bunch of stanchions. So we offer a great solution to encourage that. It’s also true that people don’t tend to plug in if they’re only going to be parked for less than an hour unless they’re super low on charge. And so that means that they tend to drop their battery a lot lower before they plug in. When there’s wireless charging and all you have to do is park, people will be able to take power snacks everywhere they go. And as long as the car is parked, it’s getting a little snack and you end up with virtually limitless range.
Elena: That’s amazing. I love the phrase that you used, “power snack.” I feel like that’s just me when I’m really hungry and I want a lot of snacks. But yeah, another question just kind of came to me as you’re talking about the ability of that charging infrastructure in the municipalities I’m sure you get this question a whole lot. Does climate affect where you’re able to install these chargers publicly? So walk me through that. I’m sure that’s a very common misconception you probably hear.
Amy: The connection between the receiver and the ground, doesn’t care if there’s snow on it. It doesn’t care if there’s ice on it or water on it. It is just as effective and as efficient as it would be on a balmy, sunny day. So we actually become a great solution for public spaces in the northeast of the US. It gets a lot of snow, but we’re also fine in warm weather places as well. So climate is not an issue. Probably the single biggest misconception we get about wireless charging is that it must be inefficient because people constantly say oh, okay, I guess it’s kind of like when I charge my phone but it takes longer to charge my phone if I’ve just used the wireless than if I plug it in. That is not the case. With our wireless charging, it uses a little bit of a different technology and it is just as efficient in our passenger vehicle solution and just as efficient as a level two charger.
Elena: Tell me a little bit more about the consumer. And I imagine you get a lot of consumer questions. What do you want the consumer who is considering putting in wireless charging with WiTricity into their garage? What do you want them to know most about wireless charging?
Amy: The first is that it’s extremely efficient. The second is that it is very easy. In fact, safer than a plug because there’s nothing to spark or arc. All you would need to have is a standard dryer outlet. And if you have that in your garage or you can have one installed, you can install wireless charging. So it’s very similar that way to putting it a level two plug in your garage if you have a level two plug today you’ve got all you need to put in wireless charging.
Elena: That’s amazing. And I think also too as people are considering should I do this or should I stick to the just the old plug in the wall. What are some things that you know, maybe a consumer or customer who was on the fence about doing this liwhat was their transformation from a I didn’t use wireless charging at all to now they’re like a wireless charging super fan? What was that transformation like? Are there any stories around that that you’ve maybe heard from some of your customers?
Amy: Yeah, I talked to actually a journalist in the automotive space. And when I first was talking to him about wireless charging his was like, you know, it’s not that big a deal. And he called me back about 20 minutes later to say his wife had just come home and he said did you plug it in the car? And she said no I didn’t because when you are the last one to have plugged in the car, you plug it all the way back into charger and it’s a hassle for me to get all the way over and then plug it in. When I’m the last one to do it, I lay it across the top of the charger so it’s easier for the next person. And so he said to me, you made me a convert, now I get it. I didn’t know that my behavior and how I was handling a charger was like leaving socks in the laundry room or something. You know, this is the basis of marital strife but not having something to trip over and not worrying about your daughter forgetting to plug it in when she took the car out for a night. There’s just a lot of ways that it improves the overall ownership experience.
Elena: A million percent and I think Amy you are solving or settling some very important domestic disputes because there are a lot of times where my husband and I we’re making sure…we don’t have a garage, right so we have to plug in outside and it’s like, “Oh, it’s gonna rain. What’s the forecast tomorrow? Bring in the charger it’s gonna get wet!” You’re almost like a Judge Judy over here solving all the EV charging complaints but no, I love it. So for the folks that haven’t met you in person, where are you going to be Amy in 2023 any events that you and WiTricity will be attending coming up? Give me a rundown for 2023.
Amy: So we will be at CES. Got a lot of people on the ground there. We will be at the North American Auto Show in Detroit in September. We’re in a bunch of smaller meetings across Europe throughout the spring. So anytime a meeting that has the word EV in it we’re likely to be there and we’ll be back in Detroit in the fall as well and a host of different meetings and are really looking forward to getting to see people again in person now that it’s becoming more and more of what we do again.
Elena: I love it. Yeah and it was so so great to meet you in person back in October that’s how all this magic started. And as soon as you know we can get our wireless charging, I will be calling you up and well as soon as we get a garage. I feel like that’s the first step. But Amy, thank you so much. If people want to reach out to you directly, is there a place where they can do so on LinkedIn? How would you like folks to contact you?
Amy: LinkedIn is great. I am amy.barzdukas@witricity.com and I’m also on Twitter @amybarzdukas
Elena: I highly encourage everyone out there to go connect with Amy. Amy, you are a joy, a pleasure. Thank you so much for being on this episode. And I’m excited to just see what WiTricity does next. You guys are just in such an exciting space. So thank you so much, Amy.
Amy: Thank you.