World's First Electrified Road For Charging Vehicles Opens In Sweden (theguardian.com)

A 1.2-mile stretch of road with electric rails has been installed in Stockholm, Sweden, allowing electric vehicles to charge up their batteries as they drive across it. "The technology behind the electrification of the road linking Stockholm Arlanda airport to a logistics site outside the capital city aims to solve the thorny problems of keeping electric vehicles charged, and the manufacture of their batteries affordable," reports The Guardian. From the report: Energy is transferred from two tracks of rail in the road via a movable arm attached to the bottom of a vehicle. The design is not dissimilar to that of a Scalextric track, although should the vehicle overtake, the arm is automatically disconnected. The electrified road is divided into 50m sections, with an individual section powered only when a vehicle is above it. When a vehicle stops, the current is disconnected. The system is able to calculate the vehicle's energy consumption, which enables electricity costs to be debited per vehicle and user. The "dynamic charging" -- as opposed to the use of roadside charging posts -- means the vehicle's batteries can be smaller, along with their manufacturing costs. A former diesel-fuelled truck owned by the logistics firm, PostNord, is the first to use the road.

Comments

Wow.

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet pedestrians are in for a "shock" ...

Re:Wow.

[Zumbs]

From TFA:

Säll said: “There is no electricity on the surface. There are two tracks, just like an outlet in the wall. Five or six centimetres down is where the electricity is. But if you flood the road with salt water then we have found that the electricity level at the surface is just one volt. You could walk on it barefoot.”

Re: Wow.

[Type44Q]

Presumably you could lie down on it naked, too... as long as it's really cold outside.

1.2 miles of road?

[mark_reh]

Driving 1.2 miles might take 5 minutes, maximum. How much power can they possibly transfer to the vehicle battery in that time?

Re:1.2 miles of road?

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Actually, when you pull out from that close up shot, it looks like this: http://www.newmodellersshop.co... ;)

Re:1.2 miles of road?

[Jeremi]

Driving 1.2 miles might take 5 minutes, maximum. How much power can they possibly transfer to the vehicle battery in that time?

Also, the very first fax machine was a completely useless product, since there was nobody to send faxes to or receive faxes from. I don't know why they even bothered to manufacture it.

Re:1.2 miles of road?

[Darkling-MHCN]

I'm guessing you skipped the bit in the article that says that it's a trial and they're planning to role it out across the country.

Re:1.2 miles of road?

[AmiMoJo]

It's a test track. To be useful it would have to be deployed on over longer distances.

Re:1.2 miles of road?

[Applehu Akbar]

Driving 1.2 miles might take 5 minutes, maximum. How much power can they possibly transfer to the vehicle battery in that time?

Meanwhile, there are all kinds of places where cars are parked that would make much better charging sites. Spending millions of dollars a mile - okay, okay, Euros per kilometer - for a charging road is the ultimate in dead end projects.

Re:1.2 miles of road?

[tsqr]

Fair enough.

Why does it not charge stopped cars then?

TFA didn't explain that design decision. Since I have to guess, I'm going to go with, "The number of cars the system would have to charge if traffic were bumper-to-bumper and stopped or barely moving (e.g., Los Angeles' I405 during rush hour) would exceed the power delivery of the system."

Your original post mentioned covering the last mile. TFA covered something very similar -- the long-term plan is to electrify highways, but not local roads. I believe they said the average distance between highways is something like 25km, so the time spent on the highway should supply enough charge to cover that distance.

From below is easier ,,,

[fahrbot-bot]

Energy is transferred from two tracks of rail in the road via a movable arm attached to the bottom of a vehicle.

... than transferring the energy from above.

Re:From below is easier ,,,

[Solandri]

Below may be easier in ideal conditions. But in real-life conditions, above is easier because crud doesn't build up, and things traveling on the road don't hit the transfer mechanism.

1.2 miles down a Califorinan Freeway

[aberglas]

Could take an hour or more...

One of two in Sweden

[iktos]

The first one was built a bit further north and uses a dual overhead catenary and has a counterpart in a warmer climate in USA.
Both built to test how the technologies will work in practical conditions.
https://www.trafikverket.se/en...

Re:One of two in Sweden

[SandorZoo]

Siemens have built a pilot of the overhead catenary in Carson, California. They're building another just south of Frankfurt in Germany.

From the picture it looks like the overhead version will only work with trucks, but the rails embedded in tarmac version will work most vehicles.

Re:Jay Walkers

[blindseer]

Does this mean that jay walkers will be electrocuted?

Yes. Of course.

And now we just need

[Anonymous Coward]

Solar freaking roadways to make this system into a truley worthless money pit.