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Sweden is building the world’s first permanent electric road that charges moving EVs

Sweden is building the world’s first permanent electric road that will charge EVs while they’re on the move.

The country has already piloted four temporary electrified roads, including in the city of Lund, in Southern Sweden (pictured above). But this 21 km (13-mile) stretch of road is going to be permanent.

The electrified road is being built by Swedish transport administration Trafikverket, which is currently working procuring a contractor for the project. Trafikverket has not yet chosen its charging technology for the groundbreaking project, but design and construction is expected to complete in 2025, and it will come online shortly afterward.

Trafikverket is considering such options – which it’s already piloted – as overhead power lines (ie, how trams operate); ground-level electric rails in the road that transmit energy to the EV through a conductive pickup beneath the vehicle, or road-embedded inductive coils that transfers power to the vehicles.

The electrified highway will be on the E20 motorway, between Hallsberg and Örebro. The motorway runs between Stockholm in the north, through Gothenburg, and Malmö in the south – and it was deliberately chosen because it’s a busy traffic corridor for the commercial transport of goods. It also has the power supply needed.

Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology released a study in March suggesting that a combination of electric roads on 25% of the busiest national and European roads and EV home charging would be optimal for the transition to EVs. And the researchers argue that if that happened, then the batteries in EVs could be made “significantly smaller, at best only one-third of the current size.”

What do you think about Sweden’s first permanent electric road? Let us know down in the comments below.

Top comment by techangelist

Liked by 13 people

“EV Charging Lane 2 Miles ahead. $1.17 per kWh. EZ Pass Required.” I can see that happening. It can become a legitimate (though premium) complement to a far-future charging mix of: conventional plugin charging, swappable batteries, ubiquitous street parking wireless charging and fuel-cell chargers. Perhaps in the year 2050.

That’s the beauty and elegance of ELECTRICITY compared to OIL. It’s a far more flexible form of energy that can be generated and transmitted in a variety of ways - many yet to be invented.

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Read more: Here’s how many EV chargers the US has – and how many it needs

Photo: Trafikverket


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Avatar for Michelle Lewis Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis is a writer and editor on Electrek and an editor on DroneDJ, 9to5Mac, and 9to5Google. She lives in White River Junction, Vermont. She has previously worked for Fast Company, the Guardian, News Deeply, Time, and others. Message Michelle on Twitter or at michelle@9to5mac.com. Check out her personal blog.