Wireless telecom giant Qualcomm Incorporated has announced that it has acquired HaloIPT, a provider of wireless charging technology for EVs

Will cell phones and cars converge one day? The field of “transmunication” is already growing on several fronts, from the increasing amount of wireless communications technology built into cars to Better Place’s plan to sell transportation as a service, with a car thrown in as a free perk. However, the most promising area of potential overlap between our two favorite status symbols is wireless charging, or “inductive power transfer.”

Wireless telecom giant Qualcomm Incorporated has announced that it has acquired HaloIPT, a provider of wireless charging technology for EVs. The deal also includes a long-term research and development partnership. Qualcomm has offered no details about specific applications, but the big banana would seem to be a “dynamic charging” system, which would allow an EV to be charged on the fly, from a power strip embedded in the road. HaloIPT already makes systems that can wirelessly charge EVs while stationary, much as a cell phone can be charged from a pad on a countertop.

“Qualcomm has been investing in wireless power for a number of years and the HaloIPT acquisition will further strengthen our technology and patent portfolio,” said Qualcomm’s Andrew Gilbert. “Building on 20 years of development and innovation in wireless power at The University of Auckland and its commercialization company Auckland UniServices Ltd, the HaloIPT team, in a relatively short period of the time, had established itself as a leading developer in wireless electric road vehicle charging.”

“We are immensely proud of what has been achieved by our team at HaloIPT over the past 18 months,” said HaloIPT chairman John Miles. “We have brought world-class university research to the attention of the global automotive industry and, through really innovative design, demonstrated the potential for wireless charging in front of several of the world’s leading OEMs.”

Image: HaloIPT