Chinese scientists have developed a method to wirelessly transfer power to a maglev train while it runs aloft.

The energy efficiency of a typical smartphone wireless charger is around 50 per cent. When charging a moving electric car with roadside transmitters, even more of the energy – nearly 80 per cent – is wasted, according to recent experiments.

But a maglev train in Qingdao, in China’s eastern Shandong province, designed to travel at a top speed of 600km/h (372mph) while being elevated by magnetic force, could draw powerful electricity from transmitting coils on the rail with up to 92.4 per cent efficiency.

The experimental results suggested that the wireless power transmission technology, based on extensive research and experiments by scientists and engineers around the world over the past few decades, was now “feasible for rail transport”, said lead project scientist Wu Donghua, of the CRRC Qingdao Sifang company, this month in a paper published in the Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University, a Chinese language peer-reviewed publication.

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