The road of the future is a life-sized slot-car track
It’s only two kilometres long, but a section of public road between Stockholm’s Arlanda airport and Swedish state-owned logistics company PostNord’s nearby hub has the potential to revolutionise electric vehicles.
The government-funded project – called eRoadArlanda – is the first public road in the world to feature an electrified rail embedded in the tarmac that automatically charges a modified electric truck as it moves cargo between the airport and logistics hub.
Energy is transferred from the road to the vehicle using a movable arm that detects the location of the rail. As long as the vehicle is above the rail, the arm will be in a lowered position and when overtaking, or coming to a halt, the arm is automatically raised.
The rail is divided into 50 metre sections, with each individual section only being powered when a vehicle is above it. When the vehicle stops, the current is disconnected and the system also calculates the vehicle’s energy consumption, which enables electricity costs to be debited per vehicle and user.
The technology is supplied by Swedish company Elways, which was started by CEO Gunnar Asplund in 2009 to develop systems for charging electric vehicles while they are in motion.
While there have been international trials of inductive charging roads – which uses a wireless magnetic transmission of energy – the technology is expensive and requires significant disruption to traffic to install in existing roads, which is why Elways chose to use conductive charging – that requires a physical contact between the vehicle and the energy source – for its system.
Conductive charging allows existing roading infrastructure to be utilised with minimal disruption and, most importantly, quickly, with the company saying that up to one kilometre of rail can be installed per hour.
But it is not just the lower cost of installing the system, it is the effect it could have on electric vehicles that has the most potential for the biggest savings.
According to Asplund, the ability to charge while driving would mean electric cars would no longer need large batteries, which can often make up half the cost of an electric car.
‘‘The technology offers infinite range – range anxiety disappears,’’ he said in an interview with Automotive News.
‘‘Electrified roads will allow smaller batteries and can make electric cars even cheaper than fossil fuel ones.’’
An initial problem of dirt accumulating on the rails has been resolved during testing, and according to Elways the contact is designed to clear stones, water and snow from the rail, while ice is handled by an integrated heating device.
Testing on the public section of road will continue for the next 12 months to test the truck in a wide range of weather conditions, with plans to roll the system out across Sweden if it proves successful.