Recently loosely coupled inductive power transfer (IPT) has gained worldwide attention for battery charging applications for electric vehicles (EVs). Since a high frequency operation is a must for transferring power inductively over a large air gap with reasonable efficiency, a careful design is needed. This paper reviews the basic design considerations for designing such a system. Critical design parameters, such as skin effect, proximity effect (at high frequency), and field-shaping techniques, to reduce leakage flux, has been demonstrated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). In addition, different compensation technique and control strategies for IPT system has been discussed.. © 2014 IEEE.