The U.K. Highways Agency is beginning to work on plans to install equipment in an English freeway to test the wireless charging of electric vehicles traveling the route.
A spokesman confirms the move in an email to WardsAuto.
“The government is promoting the advantages of ultra-low-emission vehicles,” he says. “That is why the Highways Agency is at the very early stages of exploring whether innovative technologies exist that would enable electric cars to be charged while using motorways.
“We’re not planning any news release as we are at an extremely early stage – we are just starting to think about the feasibility of dynamic charging and trials are several years away at least.”
The Highways Agency is an executive branch of the Department for Transport, responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in England.
Earlier this month, the Berkshire-based Transport Research Laboratory announced it will be taking part in a new European Commission project that aims to address the technological feasibility, economic viability and socio-environmental effects of on-road EV-charging facilities.
The project, known as FABRIC (FeAsiBility analysis and development of on-Road chargIng solutions for future electric vehiCles), will focus primarily on dynamic wireless charging and its impact on the increased adoption of EVs.
TRL says it will lead a sub-project assessing wireless and contact charging solutions from a technological point of view.
The sub-project will identify requirements for a complete on-road charging system and deal with the developments required to bridge the technological gaps between existing solutions and requirements from users/stakeholders.
“It is hoped that FABRIC will play a pivotal role in the evolution of electric mobility in Europe by identifying the benefits and costs in absolute terms so investments can be fully defined and quantified,” TRL says in a statement.
North Carolina State University researchers late last year reported they had developed new technology and techniques for transmitting power wirelessly from a stationary source to a mobile receiver.
Team leader Srdjan Lukic, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, says the researchers developed a series of segmented transmitter coils, each of which broadcasts a low-level electromagnetic field.
They also created a receiver coil that is the same size as each of the transmitter coils and that can be placed in a car or other mobile platform. The size of the coils is important, because coils of the same size transfer energy more efficiently.
The university researchers say they believe the use of dynamic charging could extend EV ranges from about 60 miles (97 km) to 300 miles (483 km).
Engineering and Technology Magazine says the Highways Agency has issued criteria for dynamic charging system adoption, including a lifecycle comparable to that of asphalt (typically about 16 years), cost-effective maintenance, resistance to vibration and weather and efficient charge collection at high speeds.
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