The biggest concern about electric vehicles is range. How far can you go before the power poops out? While a 300-mile range was once considered the gold standard, when compared with EVs today even 300 miles is only average. But, what if your EV could charge from the surface of the road so that range didn’t matter?

ElectReon embeds copper coils into the asphalt surface of roads

A tech company called ElectReon in Israel has come up with one solution that seems like a game-changer when it comes to range anxiety. It embeds copper coils into the asphalt surface of roads. EVs can pick up a charge while they travel on that electric road. Range becomes endless-at least on major highways. 

A receiver in the car picks up the electric charge and transfers it to the batteries. So far nothing like this is being incorporated into new cars. But the technology and actual components to do this would be cheap and simple to add to any EV. Plus, EVs could be built with smaller batteries making them lighter and cheaper. Larger interiors would be another plus. 

Management units are placed off of the sides of the electrified road

The costly part, and downside to all of this, is that the road surface would need to be removed and then replaced. Once that is performed tying it into existing electrical infrastructure is easy. Management units are placed off of the sides of the road. They communicate with vehicles and act like switches to transfer the energy from the coils. 

ElectReon already has electric road pilot programs functioning including a one-mile highway in Gotland, Sweden. The smart road has been able to transfer power to all-electric long-haul trucks with receivers installed. Snow and ice did not hinder charging, which happened at an average rate of 70kW.

“Charging a long-haul truck while driving on an electric road that is open to the public is an exceptional technological achievement coming after years of intense development,” said Oren Ezer, CEO of ElectReon Wireless. “The achievement brings us closer to our goal of revolutionizing the field of electric vehicle charging. We thank the strong support from Trafikverket that enabled this to take place in Sweden.” 

Simultaneous charging of multiple vehicles will help ElectReon to calibrate the system

This all means that charging stations would become obsolete. And the time it takes to charge a vehicle is eliminated, adding another advantage to the idea.