From 2025, a stretch of motorway in northern Bavaria is to serve as a test track for inductive charging of electric cars while driving.
Electrically powered vehicles often suffer from insufficient range. Many potential buyers are also put off by the search for charging stations and the relatively long charging times. ,
Inductive charging while driving could help here. Researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, together with various partners, want to find out how functional this alternative to charging parks is.
Motorway test track from 2025
A corresponding test track is planned on a motorway in northern Bavaria. Electric cars and trucks should be able to recharge their batteries wirelessly while driving via coils under the road surface. The coils integrated into the road surface generate a high-frequency magnetic field, which is converted into electricity in a receiver coil in the vehicle. The project partners calculate with a charging capacity of up to 125 kW. The Israeli company Electreon, which is already involved in a corresponding project in Balingen , supplies the technology for the charging coils integrated into the roadway. Electreon is already using its Electric Road System (ERS) in Tel Aviv on a test track for city buses, as well as on a test track in Italy . The flat charging coils can be laid as an endless tape with special vehicles. The durability of the track coils is given as around ten to 20 years. ,
In a first step, the project partners want to put a one-kilometer test track into operation by mid-2025. Exactly where this will occur depends on where the highway administration thinks the road surface actually needs to be renewed.
The aim of the E-MPower project is to "establish a standard for the manufacture of the coils and their installation in the street," said team leader Alexander Kühl from the Chair of Factory Automation at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. ,
In addition to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the project partners include VIA IMC, Autobahn GmbH, Electreon and Risomat. The consortium has planned investments of 8 million euros for the project. Further funding comes from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. ,
Conclusion
In order to allay users' range anxiety in electric vehicles, researchers are relying on inductive charging while driving. In northern Bavaria, a section of the motorway is to be converted into a test track. The projected charging capacity is 125 kW.
