Electreon Wants To Transform Roadways Into Charging Stations
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have sharply escalated over the past three years. However, their overall global market share remains extremely low. It ranges from about 16 percent in China to just 4.5 percent in the US. One of the biggest hurdles to widespread EV car adoption is the fear of running out of charge while on the road. Israeli startup Electreon hopes to eliminate "range anxiety" by transforming highways into Electric Road Systems (ERS) that wirelessly charge vehicles as they drive.
Electreon's proprietary copper coils, embedded inside the pavement, wirelessly transmit energy from the electric grid to a receiver under the vehicle. The battery gets charged whenever an EV drives or stops on the road. For all other vehicles, it serves as a regular road. The company asserts that dozens of cars can be charged simultaneously without putting additional pressure on the electricity grid.
After successful tests in Israel, Sweden, Italy, and Germany, the ERS is now coming to the US. Fittingly, the first electric road will be built in Detroit, Michigan — the birthplace of the modern automobile. The pilot program, spearheaded by the Michigan Department of Transportation, will entail retrofitting a one-mile-long stretch of pavement in Corktown — Detroit's oldest neighborhood — by 2023.
Electreon maintains that widespread implementation of its easy-to-install technology would eliminate "range anxiety" and help drive EV sales. It would also allow for smaller batteries and make EVs more affordable.
But not everyone is convinced that the ERS is feasible on a large scale. For the technology to work, all EVs would have to be equipped with a charging pad, which currently costs about $4,000. The bigger hurdle, however, is the cost of retrofitting pavements. The one-mile-long pilot project in Detroit will cost Michigan a steep $1.9 million, with Electreon contributing the rest.
Sam Abuelsamid, a principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights, says, "Building this stuff into roadways will add a substantial amount of cost to road infrastructure. We have a hard enough time just paying for normal pavement." The expert also points out that only 90% of the energy produced through the wireless charging is transferred to the battery, compared to the 96% transmitted when using a cable.
Massachusetts-based startup SparkCharge is taking a different approach to solving "range anxiety." The company has built portable EV chargers that fit inside the car's trunk and provide a full charge when needed. Hopefully, the various solutions will encourage more people to switch to clean-energy vehicles.
Resources: Dallasfed.org, michigancentral.com, cbsnews.com, businessinsider.com, axios.com
Get the Workbook for this article!
Workbook contains: Article, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking Questions, Vocabulary in Context (+ answers), Multiple Choice Quiz (+ answers), Parts of Speech Quiz (+ answers), Vocabulary Game (+ answers)Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
79 Comments
- kyrymiriover 2 yearsCool. I'm going to buy this car.
- kyrymiriover 2 yearsWhen I am older that is.
- justakid45over 2 yearsI wish it was for all cars though.
- angelachangover 2 yearsYeah, I think so too, if the road can only recharge electrons’s cars, then people who can’t afford electrons’s cars won’t be able to recharge, thus global warming will still increase, but in a slow way. Even though it is very slow, it will eventually become a bigger problem, and will also be harder to solve as the time increases.
- izzwiz2022over 2 yearsI think they are doing great so far! It will totally help the world too! It's like we are going into the future too!
- ezrabover 2 yearsi wish it was for all cars :(
- Luna Eover 2 yearsI think this is a great idea! It will help the world and air pollution will go lower. This idea could change this world into its original green world, not that it isn’t! 🚘
- makaylashewolfover 2 yearsThis is awesome!
- furm0mover 2 yearsWoah, this seems almost futuristic :]
- c00lkidddover 2 yearsFuturistic? this is regular tech. People don't use EVs as much because sometimes it's hard to find EV charging spots.
- nniibboorraaover 2 yearswhy can't they just make wheels electric generators?
- summer_beachover 2 yearsThat's a good idea @nniibboorraa!
- feberlover 2 yearsbecause generators and motors work the same but one turns rotation into energy and the other turns energy into rotation so in theory, you need twice as much output to get half as much energy so its not efficient and were would you even put it
- c00lkidddover 2 yearsSmart idea, but it wouldn't be very efficient.
- waffleconeover 2 yearsThey claim it won't take much money and then we go bankrupt.
- whatsthenewsover 2 yearselectrifying