# Powering an electric car wirelessly

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powering-an-electric-car-wirelessly/436597>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 6, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powering-an-electric-car-wirelessly/436597 "2008-02-06T23:19:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powering-an-electric-car-wirelessly/436597/21 "2008-02-08T04:15:15Z")

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[QUOTE=flex727]  
Isn’t this a strong function of the geometry of the situation? How did you go about calculating the 1/6th value?  
[/QUOTE]  
I didn’t calculate it. It’s the efficiency figure I recall from reading a report on wireless transmission. I recall the report was from the California Institute of Technology, I think from the NASA Jet Propulsion Labs. The best they were able to achieve was about 5/6ths efficiency.

This was some years ago, but I haven’t heard of any significant improvement being reported since then.

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powering-an-electric-car-wirelessly/436597/22 "2008-02-08T17:14:37Z")

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and work on-line?

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