Detroit, the home of the US car industry, has opened a stretch of road that wirelessly charges electric vehicles.
Fourteenth street, a 400-metre strip of public road just west of downtown Detroit, is claimed to be the first road in the country with inductive charging coils under the bitumen to recharge EVs.
The technology is in its infancy, and current electric vehicles don’t have the ability to accept wireless charging, but the road will act as a real-world test bed for the technology.
Carmakers have been experimenting with inductive recharging for several years but no compatible vehicles have made it into production yet.
The road has been developed by Israel-based company Electreon, which has 18 similar projects across eight countries including France, Sweden, Germany and China.
Electreon vice president of business development Dr Stefan Tongur said the 14th street project was designed “to demonstrate how wireless charging unlocks widespread EV adoption, addressing limited range, grid limitations, and battery size and costs.”
“This project paves the way for a zero-emission mobility future, where EVs are the norm, not the exception,” he said.
The tech is based on inductive coupling between copper coils beneath the road surface and receivers installed on electric vehicles.
When a vehicle with a receiver nears the electric road, it transfers electricity wirelessly through a magnetic field to the vehicle’s battery.
There are three types of road charging: dynamic charging, involving vehicles moving at speed, semi-dynamic charging for slow moving vehicles such as taxis in queues and stationary charging for parked vehicles at bus stations, loading docks and parking lots.
Electreon says the electric road is safe for drivers, pedestrians and wildlife, as the copper coils are only activated when a vehicle with an approved receiver passes over them.
The street is in Detroit’s historic Corktown neighbourhood, home to more than 60 tech and mobility start-ups, which will be encouraged to contribute their expertise to the development of inductive road charging.
With the electric road up and running, Detroit has plans to open its first electric avenue, Michigan Ave, next year. It has also installed two static inductive charging stations for stationary vehicles in front of Michigan Central Station.
“For more than a century, Detroit has been known around the world as the leader in transportation innovation,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
“We are the birthplace of the auto industry, and the home of the first mile of concrete road and the first three-way traffic signal. Today, thanks to Governor Whitmer and our partners at Michigan Central and Electreon, we can add the nation’s first wireless charging public roadway to that list of innovations.”
Installation of the road will continue until the end of this year before testing begins early next year with a Ford E-Transit electric van provided by Ford.
Inductive charging is seen as a possible solution to the global shortage of public chargers, which threatens to derail strong growth in electric vehicle sales over the past year or two.
In the US, the Biden administration has committed to build half a million EV charging stations to allay fears of long waiting times at charging bays, particularly during holiday periods when EVs are travelling longer distances.