A smart road allowing battery-less EV power will be built in Sweden.
The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has announced results of a tender.
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The consortium Smart Road Gotland won the final round.
Electreon (a subsidiary of Electreon Wireless) will lead the project's next phase to provide vital knowledge of the future potential of dynamic wireless mobile power transfer through this demonstration road system.
This public-private initiative claims it will be first worldwide to power inductively both an electric truck and a bus while in full motion.
The consortium will deploy a fully functional public shuttle service and test bed through a 1.6km (one mile) electric road which is part of the 4.1km route between airport and Visby city centre on Gotland island, an eco-municipality in the Baltic Sea.
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By GlobalDataThe electric truck will be test driven by a professional driver in varied seasonal conditions to ensure that the system is ready for large-scale projects on highways.
Long haul heavy trucks benefit significantly from wireless power transfer since no heavy and costly batteries, nor stops for charging, are needed. This enables installation of electric road systems without the environmental impact (both physical and visual) of a conductive system such as overhead wires.
The Swedish Transport Administration will evaluate the potential for larger scale electric road investments.
"To commence with the heavier transports is logical since the biggest emission improvements can be gained where the usage and tonnage is the highest. The future positive impact could be global," said Alec Arho-Havren, CEO/founder Gotland GPe Circuit/GotlandRing and World Ecological Forum.
"Demonstrating and evaluating new technical solutions for electric routes is one of our most important steps in our long-term plan for a potential rollout of electrified routes on the heavy road network in Sweden," said Jan Pettersson, programme manager, Trafikverket.
