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The “Electric Highway” is an experiment aimed at making it possible to recharge the battery of an electric vehicle while on the move. The method will be tested next year in France.
The project involves placing an electric cable about ten centimeters below the asphalt, on the longitudinal axis of the road. Thanks to this system, it could be possible to recharge the battery of an electric vehicle while on the move.
It will be tested in 2025. According to the French publication Le Monde, the testing will be done on the A10 motorway, southwest of Paris. On a two-kilometer stretch, the system will cost 26 million euros. The funding will be provided by the French government through Bpifrance.
In addition to the constructive challenges imposed by such a project, Gustave Eiffel University hopes to determine what the energy efficiency of an “electric” road is. “Roads are responsible for 87% of passenger and freight traffic. Roads are the ones that need to be decarbonised. This is especially true on motorways. Where trucks emit 45% of greenhouse gases due to their higher numbers”, said Christophe Hug, Executive Vice President in charge of environmental policy at Vinci Autoroutes.
Vinci, Hutchinson and Gustave Eiffel University to test electric vehicle charging while on the road
The “Electric Highway” is a project that should result in the charging of electric vehicles by induction. The goal is to increase their autonomy and reduce the size and weight of the battery packs in their composition. The energy stored at the charging stations could also be supported by a source located under the asphalt. Full recharging could take place at much greater distances. The weight of batteries and vehicles would be greatly reduced.
“It is not a technological artifice. At 200 kilowatts, you could recharge 50% of a car’s battery by driving for ten minutes in the right-hand lane”, explains Louis du Pasquier, director of low-carbon mobility at Vinci Autoroutes.
Copper coils buried in the ground and powered by the mains emit a magnetic field. A sensor installed under the vehicle’s chassis converts it back into electricity.
“This is extremely attractive. It would free us from the constraints of recharging on the highway, while reducing the need for critical materials used in the manufacture of batteries,” says Virginie Delcroix, director of sustainable development at Geodis, the logistics subsidiary of SNCF.
At the same point on the A10, Vinci Autoroutes will test a second solution that consists of charging the battery by connecting the truck to a flat rail fixed to the road, with the help of retractable skids. It is a system developed by Alstom, which is already in operation on the tram lines of Tours and Bordeaux.
