- Sweden pioneers the world’s first permanent electric road for charging EVs while driving.
- Electrified highway spans 21 km, set to complete by 2025.
- Innovative charging technologies considered, including overhead power lines and embedded coils.
- The strategic location on the busy E20 motorway facilitates the commercial transport of goods.
- Potential for smaller EV batteries with the widespread adoption of electric roads and home charging.
Can you believe it? Sweden is totally rocking it by constructing the world’s first-ever permanent electric road that charges electric vehicles while they’re cruising along!
They’ve actually experimented with temporary electrified roads before, like the one in the vibrant city of Lund down in Southern Sweden (you can see it in the picture above). But this time, they’re taking it up a notch with a 21 km (13-mile) stretch of road that’s here to stay.
The cool thing is that the Swedish transport administration, Trafikverket, is in charge of this groundbreaking project. They’re currently in the process of finding the perfect contractor to bring their vision to life. While they haven’t finalized the charging technology yet, the design and construction are scheduled to be completed by 2025, with the road going live shortly thereafter.
Trafikverket is considering a few exciting options they’ve already tested out. One possibility is using overhead power lines, similar to how trams operate. Another idea is to embed ground-level electric rails into the road, which would transmit energy to the EV through a conductive pickup beneath the vehicle. And they’re also exploring road-embedded inductive coils that transfer power to the vehicles. How cool is that?
This electrified highway is going to be located on the E20 motorway, between Hallsberg and Örebro. It’s a major route that connects Stockholm in the north, and Gothenburg, and Malmö in the south. They specifically chose this busy traffic corridor for commercial transport because it already has the necessary power supply. Smart thinking, right?
In March, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden released a study that proposed having electric roads on 25% of the busiest national and European routes, combined with EV home charging, as the optimal solution for transitioning to electric vehicles. The researchers even suggested that if this became a reality, EV batteries could be made significantly smaller, possibly only one-third of their current size. That’s mind-blowing!
So, what do you think about Sweden’s impressive feat with the first permanent electric road? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Let’s keep the conversation going!
