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Stellantis, ABB & Electreon: Arena del Futuro - Power is on the road

On a test track, the partners want to demonstrate how inductive charging can be integrated into the roadway. And how this can shrink the batteries, simplify charging, and eliminate the need for overhead lines and DC charging parks. We conducted a trial inductive charging.

Wireless Charging: In a promising pilot project, a consortium is testing inductive charging, which of course also works statically. | Photo: J. Reichel
Wireless Charging: In a promising pilot project, a consortium is testing inductive charging, which of course also works statically. | Photo: J. Reichel
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Johannes Reichel

It's a magical idea: charging while driving. And the so-called Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) is now set to become a reality. Or rather, it already is: in the "Arena del Futuro" between Milan and Brescia, initiated by the Spanish highway operator Aleatica on the "Brebemi A35" route. At least the technology for it is available, as the company demonstrates in a broad consortium with Stellantis, ABB, the Israeli wireless charging specialist Electreon, the construction material expert Mapei, and Iveco on a 1,050-meter test track on the Autostrada. During our test drive, a substantial amount of electricity flows through the inductive charging coils embedded in the asphalt. It indeed feels magical.

The Iveco electric bus (a Heuliez) draws up to 90 kW from the electric track, while the Fiat 500e following it can draw up to 25 kW with its receiver under the vehicle floor. For an average passenger car and at a speed of 120 km/h, this is supposed to ensure that you virtually don't lose any range on your way to the south or elsewhere. Provided, of course, you are not traveling on the high-speed train that thunders over the area during our test drive. There certainly is no shortage of electricity at this location.

The primary intention of the project is not immediately apparent but makes sense upon consideration. With inductive charging lanes, much smaller batteries could be installed, conserving resources and benefitting the environment. And saving money: After all, batteries account for 40 to 50 percent of the cost of an electric car, as Gianfranco Romeo from Stellantis' Charging & Energy unit explains.

A hefty one to four megawatts can flow underground when the inductive coils are embedded in the asphalt strip. The power is then completely controlled via the cloud and distributed to the vehicles driving nearby. Theoretically, this means that a charging capacity equivalent to HPC chargers is dormant in the road. And theoretically, if the technology is scaled, it could make many of the currently sprouting, visually and spatially disadvantageous HPC charging parks unnecessary, as project managers promote.

According to Romeo, "charging while driving" would of course be much more time-saving and convenient than all the cabling and parking. Not to mention the structurally complex and visually challenging overhead lines on highways, which are also currently being tested. The application cases are diverse, naturally including stationary ones: electric bus fleets, taxi services, logistics areas, truck hub-to-hub traffic, parking lots. There are endless examples where the technology could be profitably used without drastic interventions in the environment.

The costs are expected to range from 1.5 to 2.5 million euros per kilometer of route with a power output of one to four megawatts for DC charging infrastructure, which is estimated at 100,000 euros for a 150-kW station. According to Romeo, 300 meters of route can be "electrified" in eight hours, and multiple teams could energetically charge one kilometer in one night. And, of course, these costs could be drastically reduced with the scaling of the technology, as the energy specialist further explains. Incidentally, it is as energy-efficient as a DC charging infrastructure: the system achieves an efficiency of up to 88 percent, feeding almost directly from the grid into the vehicle. In the worst case, it is still about 72 percent that reach the car battery, averaging 82 percent.

If the package with metal plate, receiver, and inverter, which currently protrudes somewhat unattractively from the Fiat floor, can be integrated into a small car, this should not be a problem for larger vehicles either. The expected additional weight of 50 kilograms could be more than offset by the potential weight reduction of the batteries, which Romeo estimates at minus 15 to 25 kWh. Although the technology is still optimizable, it is already market-ready and scalable, the engineer promotes. What is still lacking, in his view, is the willingness to invest in further infrastructure. Just like with charging parks, one could also consider payment models based on kilowatt-hours, because the amount of energy could actually be allocated to each vehicle.

Meanwhile, further pilot projects are underway, for example in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and France, including an Electreon project on the A10. Additionally, experiments with inductive roads are also being conducted in the USA. And in Germany, four roads are already electrified, including a bus lane in Balingen. A tempting perspective for many applications, the "Strada del Stromo".

Translated automatically from German.
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