Wireless EV charging technology could soon become a reality. According to the Balingen project, an electric bus in the city of Balingen, Germany, could soon be wirelessly charged on the highway.
According to media reports, although the project involves a single bus, it can be quickly scaled up and rolled out to cars and across different locations around the world in the coming years.
As per the project, Israeli company Electreon and Germany’s EnBW have teamed up to fit an Electric Road System (ERS) along a 1 km stretch of a German highway. The technology works such that a set of magnetic coils are installed in the roads, which transfer electricity through the air to another coil at the bottom of the electric vehicle. While static wireless charging stations have been around for a while, charging roads are said to be a bit more complicated and currently at an earlier stage of development.
Electreon is said to receive up to $3.2 million in funding to set up the charging infrastructure, including two static charging stations at locations where the bus routinely stops during its schedule.
Reports state that the introduction of wireless charging roads could help vehicles move to small batteries, further making them lighter, more efficient & less expensive.
Apart from Germany, the technology is also said to undergo testing in the USA. Michigan’s Governer announced that the state would be testing wireless, in-road charging capabilities on its highways soon.
