Magnetic concrete makes wireless charging of electric vehicles a reality

With the help of an unusual material in electrical engineering - magnetic concrete, startup Magment plans to bring a new revolution to induction charging for electric vehicles. Most importantly, it can be automatically charged through coils on the road. This technology has been tested in several research projects.

Mauricio Esguerra, founder and CEO of Magment, introduced that magnetic concrete has a major advantage compared to other electrical engineering materials: unparalleled cost-effectiveness. Concrete is the most cost-effective material on the market, 'Esguerra said. This price advantage applies not only to its manufacturing, but also to its processing. The magnetic concrete developed by Magment can be processed in exactly the same way as traditional concrete - with the same equipment and process. This has revealed an important application area for this material: automatic charging of electric vehicles through inductors embedded in road infrastructure. Even charging while driving is possible.

Magnetic concrete technology is a research achievement of Esguerra and his team, who previously worked at Siemens Spinoff Epcos. The company develops and produces passive components. Esguerra has successfully developed highly homogeneous concrete by mixing ferrite particles into cement. We can control the magnetic parameters very precisely, 'Esguerra said.

Magnetic concrete can be processed into any shape through pressureless treatment. For wireless charging, Magment has developed a transmitting end embedded with a coil. The transmitting coil and receiving coil are charged at 85 kHz resonance. Esguerra said this is a 'resonance' because the resonance charging field is dominated by large companies such as Qualcomm; Magment wants to distinguish itself from these opponents technically. However, when the distance between the transmitting coil and the receiving coil is 20 centimeters, his charging technology can achieve 95% efficiency, Esguerra guarantees.