CES: General Motors to wirelessly charge phones and other electronics in the Chevrolet Volt
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General Motors has charging fever. Not long after it started delivering its hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt, the automaker announced a partnership at CES to wirelessly juice up consumer electronics in the car.
Israeli company Powermat, which makes a pad that can power up most gadgets lying on top, is the other half of the pair. The automaker is investing $5 million in the company through GM Ventures, its venture capital subsidiary.
The two also have an exclusive commercial agreement for GM to develop a way to embed the pad technology into the Volt initially and then into other GM models. That means drivers will be able to throw their smart phones, iPods and gaming devices directly onto the mat to boost the battery instead of hauling along a mess of cords and cables.
The integrated charging system will probably be available in the Volt sometime in 2012, said Micky Bly, GM’s executive director of vehicle engineering, in an interview.
“We’re placing our chips on all that kind of advanced technology, to get GM back as the starter on the cutting edge,” he said.
Speaking of the Volt, he said the automaker is looking into other clean car options such as fuel cells and is developing programs to look into all-electric vehicles.
“But the Volt is the absolute right solution for the majority of drivers,” he said. “We don’t want to badly engineer something just to have it out there. We’re in this game to win it.”
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