Electric road

[7] The project's final report was published in 2024, which recommended against funding a national electric road network in Sweden as it would not be cost-effective, unless the technology was first adopted by its trading partners such as France and Germany.

[10] Germany trialed overhead lines in three projects and reported they are too expensive, difficult to maintain, and pose a safety risk.

[11][12][13] France found those same drawbacks for overhead lines, and began testing inductive and rail electric road systems in 2023.

[19] The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) similarly recommends a system capable of delivering 300 kW per truck.

For instance, the CEO of IPT, a vehicle inductive power transfer company, regards the existing standards as "extremely expensive" for use in electric roads.

[29] WiPowerOne (an offshoot of the KAIST OLEV project) and Electreon, two wireless electric road companies, have been working on new dynamic inductive charging standards since 2021.

[30] ENRX, which is comprised of several companies including IPT,[31] announced in November 2024 that it plans to collaborate with InductEV to standardize dynamic wireless power transfer.

Foreign objects pose a fire or burn risk if metals or organisms are between the ground pad and the receiver when the system is active.

[2]: Appendix B The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology launched in 2009 a shuttle service with wireless dynamic charging through inductive coils embedded in the road.

[7] The project's final report was published in 2024, which recommended against funding a national electric road network in Sweden as it would not be cost-effective,[8] unless the technology was adopted by trading partners such as France and Germany.

[9] The final report by CollERS, the Swedish-German research collaboration on electric road systems, advised Trafikverket to select a single ERS technology, suitable for heavy trucks, with several suppliers who use an existing standard, coordinated with German and French ERS decisions, not necessarily led by the European Union but with their coordination, utilizing an ERS-technology-neutral payment system.

[14] Alstom has developed a ground-level power supply (alimentation par le sol - APS) system for use with buses and other vehicles.

Wireless ERS by Electreon will be tested for durability under highway traffic, and will attempt to reach 200kW of power delivery per truck using multiple receivers.

[46] Vinci Autoroutes installed 750 meters of the induction system by Feburary 2025, which is expected to be tested from April until December using four different vehicles.

[2][48] One such trial was launched in May 2019 on a 10 km (6.2 mi) section of Bundesautobahn 5 south of Frankfurt, operated by the ELISA consortium which includes Siemens and Scania.

By the end if the trial period the system was functioning satisfactorily, and operators using the technology enjoyed lower freight costs.

Despite this, the Ministry encountered high costs, difficult maintenance,[12] and safety risks for emergency services by the overhead lines and for motorists by the roadside poles.

[11] Wireless electric road system (wERS) trials were conducted in 2023 by the German Ministry of Economy, BMWK, with infrastructure by Electreon.

[5] Proposed costs for 200 metres (220 yd) were about 716,000 GBP for the inductive coils and their management units, £258,000 for civil costs including roadwork and electric grid connections, £64,000 for planning and commissioning, £18,000 for 12 months maintenance and data management, £129,500 for upfitting a bus and a van with wireless receivers, and £300,000 for the accompanying report on the project.

Quebec companies Transport Morneau and Filgo plan to use a ground-level power supply system by Elonroad for charging Volvo and Tyco electric heavy equipment and trucks while they park or drive.

[57] Zhongtong Electrified Highway Technology (中同电气化公路技术) plans as of 2024 to construct 500 kilometers of electric road by 2026 for the continuous 24-hour-a-day operation of coal-mining trucks in Xinjiang completely powered by overhead wires.

Research on the project, conducted by Purdue University's Steve Pekarek, aims to show the technology could make a transition to heavy electric trucks more financially beneficial for businesses.

The project, funded at 4.5 million USD by the California Energy Commission, will study the technology's weather endurance for 12 months, and will feature a road that supplies 250kW of power to electric vehicles driving over it, and five automatic 50kW charging stations.

Three types of electric road systems. An electric bus (black) receives power from the road: (A) with three inductive pickups (red) from a strip of resonant inductive coils (blue) embedded several centimeters under the road (gray); (B) with a current collector (red) sliding over a ground-level power supply rail segment (blue) flush with the surface of the road (gray); (C) with an overhead current collector (red) sliding against a powered overhead line (blue)
Irisbus Cristalis trolleybus using overhead power lines in Limoges , France, 2015
OLEV bus using ground-level wireless dynamic charging, 2016
Electric truck driving on a public road with Elways ground-level power supply , near Arlanda airport , 2019.
Bordeaux tramway with Alstom ground-level power supply , a technology that as of 2022 is being considered for electric roads.