The US state of Indiana could be set to be the first state in the US to create a road that charges electric vehicles as they drive along it. The so called 'wireless road' uses ground-breaking technology to recharge the vehicles, and supporters believe it could be a key tool in getting people to transfer to electric vehicles and fight climate change.
While electric vehicles have become more and more common, particularly with the rise of companies like Tesla, one of the main things holding back people from making the switch is the lack of charging points in cities and towns. Many people have to charge their vehicles at home, which makes longer trips difficult and requires them to be planned well in advance so that those taking the journey know where electric charging points are.
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) plans to tackle these problems by placing electrified wire coils that create a magnetic field along the road surface. Cars that are then fitted with a receiver coil that is able to pick up an electric charge as they move along the road, almost like toy race-cars. To avoid expensive copper, the roads will instead use recycled ferrite, which will make the roads cheaper and more efficient.
It had previously been suggested that this sort of technology would take 5 or 10 years to reach completion, but the desire for change has pushed forward these projects to make them a reality in the here and now.
The work is expected to begin shortly and will be overseen by German firm Magment.
Mauricio Esguerra, CEO of Magment, said of the project:
"This project is a real step forward towards the future of dynamic wireless charging."
Adding that the roads will:
"Achieve transmission efficiency of up to 95% and be built at standard road-building installation costs."
This new road in Indiana will not be word first, a similar prototype 70km long road is already in place in Italy, and was built by Israeli firm Electroen, and similar projects are being planned in both Germany and Sweden.
Such roads become much more common could make a huge change in carbon emissions and will be one of the biggest changes to our relationship with motor vehicles in history.
[h/t: Good News Network]
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