Stellantis: a road to recharge electric cars

What if we never had to plug in our electric cars again? That is essentially the promise of dynamic inductive charging.

A new step for the experimental electric road technology, or Electric Road System (ERS): the company ElectReon has announced this week the launch of a new experiment in Italy, in partnership with Stellantis and Iveco.

Launched near Milan, the “Arena of the Future” is a 1 km long (1050 meters) road equipped with ElectReon’s dynamic wireless charging technology. An electric Fiat 500 and an electric IVECO E-way bus adapted for the system can recharge while in motion.

The technology relies on the same electromagnetic induction phenomenon as a wireless charger for smartphones, but on the scale of light vehicles and even heavy trucks, and most importantly, designed to operate while moving. The idea is to recharge vehicles as they travel, which allows for smaller battery capacities, reducing their weight and thereby improving energy efficiency.

It will be necessary to ensure that ecological gains for the vehicles are not offset by the environmental costs of installing coils along the roads, and by the probably lower efficiency of wireless charging, especially in motion. Nonetheless, we can hope that strong collaboration will enable economies of scale. Unfortunately, ElectReon has not yet answered all these questions.

In any case, electric roads are an interesting alternative to ultra-fast charging, battery swapping, or hydrogen. Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages; some are complementary, and the future will tell us which ones succeed.