Workers installing inductive charging coils in the road surface at Smartroad Gotland. The company intends to use the system for non-road applications, too, like forklifts and electric scooters. Details are scarce, but the company is pioneering a special method of mixing ferromagnetic materials in with cement to produce a more cost-effective and efficient wireless charging road system. Startup Magment is named for a portmanteau of “magnetic cement,” and is working on a special inductive road demonstration with the Indiana Department of Transport. Other companies are also working in this space, too. While some of the routes have since closed, a shuttle service still operates at KAIST using the technology. The system is buried in 5-15% of the roadway on the bus routes, and a vehicle detection system powers down the induction coils when not in use. With power delivered from the road surface, the buses can rely on smaller batteries to get around, saving weight and improving efficiency. Much research went into finding the optimum coil geometries and electrical parameters to enable the system to run at this level. This is achieved by using multiple power pickup coils mounted on a single vehicle. The second-generation of the system used on the buses transmits 100 kW of power wirelessly across an air gap of 17 cm at a power efficiency of 85%. The system slowly expanded to four lines by 2016, with the buses charging wirelessly thanks to inductive power transmitters buried in the road along the bus’s route. The Online Electric Vehicle, or OLEV, was developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST), and used to power a shuttle bus in 2009. Credit: KAIST, press releaseĭespite these challenges, the idea has been proven in the real world to a limited extent. The receiver operates with a nominal airgap of just 17 cm above the coil. Busses are the Beginning The OLEV system buries a “power track” in the road, which powers the buses wirelessly via receivers mounted underneath. Plus, since cars move at quite a rapid pace, an inductive charging system that could handle this dynamic condition would require huge numbers of coils buried repeatedly into the road bed. And, while a phone can sit neatly on top of a charging pad, EVs typically require a fair bit of ground clearance for safely navigating the road.

When it comes to charging an electric vehicle, huge power levels are required, in the range of tens to hundreds of kilowatts. Taking these ideas from concept into reality is difficult, though. Power is delivered to coils in the roadway, and then picked up via induction by a coil on the moving vehicle. Many are similar to the way we commonly charge phones these days, using inductive power transfer via magnetic coils. Over the years, many proposals have been made to power or charge electric vehicles as they drive down the road. However, a new wireless charging setup could allow you to juice up on the go. It’s been the major bugbear of electric vehicles since they started hitting the road in real numbers. If there isn’t a high-speed DC charger available, this can mean waiting for hours while your battery tops up. One of the primary issues with EVs is that you need to pull over and stop to get a charge.

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