World’s first electrified road has been opened in Sweden, which would recharge the batteries of electric vehicles (EV) while on the move.
Almost a 2km-long electric rail has been embedded in a public road near the country’s capital Stockholm and the government’s road agency has now drafted a national map as well for future expansion of the electric road. The road currently links Stockholm Arlanda airport to a logistics site outside the city.
As per The Guardian, the aim behind the road’s electrification is to solve the problems of keeping EVs charge at all times and manufacturing affordable batteries. Since Sweden targets to achieve freedom from fossil fuel by 2030, a 70% of reduction of it is required from the transport sector.
Hans Säll, the chief executive of the group behind the project eRoadArlana Consortium, exclaimed that both current vehicles and roadways can be adapted to benefit from the technology. The road was initially tested by an electric truck owned by the logistics firm, PostNord, and will continue using it for the next 12 months.
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“Everything is 100% automatic, based on the connector magnetically sensing the road. As a driver you drive as usual, the connector goes down onto the track automatically and if you leave the track, it goes up automatically,” Säll told Sweden’s The Local.
The energy on the road is transferred from two tracks of rail in the road through a movable arm that is attached to the bottom of a vehicle and the arm can also be automatically disconnected. The road is divided into 50m portions and a single section is powered solely when a vehicle is over it. As soon as the vehicle stops, the current gets disconnected.
This system can measure the vehicle’s energy consumption that helps enable electricity costs are to be debited per vehicle and user. This ‘dynamic’ charging can lead to smaller EV’s batteries and reduced manufacturing costs. Costing €1m per kilometer, the cost of these electrified roads is said to be 50 times lower than that needed to build an urban tram line.