TOYOTA and General Motors are to carry out a joint development of a charging system which will eliminate the need to physically plug electric vehicles into a power supply in order to recharge them. The plans, announced in the US, involve developing GM's existing Mange-Charge inductive charging technology - which uses a cable-free electromagnetic connection between the power source and vehicle.

The new development will be a charge paddle and charge port, proposed by Toyota, reducing the size of the system to make it easier to put into electric vehicles. Toyota and GM expect the jointly developed inductive charging system to become the world standard charging system used by all car manufacturers.