States to Experiment with Roads that can Charge EVs

Brief 

Michigan will test electrified roads that can charge electric vehicles as they’re moving, and other states are lining up with similar projects. If the inductive systems are successful, they could prove crucial for freight movement, sparing electrically powered trucks some of the extreme weight of extra batteries that would otherwise be required.

Insight

On two short stretches of road near downtown Detroit, Michigan transportation officials hope to make history.

Over the next two years, they plan to embed technology in the pavement that can charge electric vehicles while they’re being driven. The wireless system will be the first U.S. test of so-called inductive charging on public roadways, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

“We’re the auto capital. We continue to push technology advancements,” said Michele Mueller, a senior project manager at the agency.In some other states, including Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Utah, officials also plan to test inductive charging on public roads in the next several years.

“This is a great solution to a problem we have today of how to get to zero emissions,” said Tallis Blalack, managing director of the ASPIRE engineering research center headquartered at Utah State University, which focuses on electric vehicle infrastructure. “If we do this correctly, we can decrease the costs of transportation for everyone.”

Electromagnetic inductive charging is common in everyday life — setting a mobile phone on a wireless charger uses similar technology. On roadways, coils embedded in the pavement transfer magnetic energy to a receiver mounted beneath an electric vehicle to wirelessly charge its battery.

Eventually, wireless road systems could extend electric vehicles’ battery range, reduce the idle time required to recharge batteries and allow freight trucks to transition to electric by making it possible for them to use smaller, less expensive batteries, say proponents of the technology. They envision inductive charging along sections of highway across the country.

Drivers would use a phone app or vehicle control to choose whether to accept a charge from a road’s coils. Users would pay for kilowatts the same way they do at an EV charging station, though the system would be free to drivers during test pilots.

Blalack said the biggest challenge in getting to zero emissions nationally is figuring out how to move the 70% of freight that is now transported by truck.