Will Charles

International experts in electric vehicle technology met in the city Wednesday with UTC researchers aiming to take the plug out of transit bus battery recharging.

"Our role is to replace the plug," said Will Charles, who works for a group linked with the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Mr. Charles is working with the University of Tennessee of Chattanooga, which has a grant related to the contactless inductive charging system for buses. The electrical energy system may be embedded in a road and power transferred without any contact.

The goal, Mr. Charles said, is to transfer enough electricity in one minute to power a bus for a mile for just one dime.

He said a demonstration of the technology is expected to take place at the University of Kansas using a student shuttle bus.

Bob Honea, director of the University of Kansas Transportation Research Institute, said a former bus built in Chattanooga by Advanced Vehicle Systems is being refurbished for the research project.

"We've got a flat area on campus that looks to be ideal," Mr. Honea said.

He said the CARTA electric buses running in downtown Chattanooga need to be put out of service temporarily to have their battery packs changed out during the day.

But under the system to be tested, the bus could charge its batteries over the inductive system several times during the day while students are loading and unloading, Mr. Honea said.

The aim is to charge the batteries enough to keep them in their optimum "sweet spot" and run the bus all day long, he said.

Ron Bailey, Guerry professor of engineering at UTC, said the university is the lead institution regarding the project. Dr. Bailey said it has gotten a team of students involved to get hands-on experience.

Jim Frierson, executive director of the city-based Advanced Transportation Technology Institute, said the time has come for electric vehicles and the technology.

"Being at the forefront of that is what Chattanooga has been doing," he said.

On Tuesday, Nashville-based Nissan North America received a $1.6 billion loan to build electric cars and battery packs.

The company said there eventually could be up to 1,000 jobs added to Nissan's Smyrna, Tenn., plant where the lithium-ion power packs will be made for the new plug-in car.

Mr. Charles, general manager of technology for the University of Auckland's research commercialization arm, said the next idea is to put the new technology into play for other electric vehicles.

He said electric vehicle technology is moving more mainstream. Mr. Charles said the problems with electric vehicles have been range and battery life.

Mr. Charles said the inductive charging system increases the efficiency of batteries while cutting the number needed in a vehicle.

Also taking part in the research effort is Wampfler Group. It specializes in the fields of mobile electrification and made the system which was invented by researchers at the New Zealand university.

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., reviewed the work on the charging system earlier this week at the Advanced Vehicle Test Facility in Chattanooga.