Electrified highways for electric trucks and cars in Sweden

The dream of electrified highways for car and truck transport has remained on the spot.

Electric cars are starting to reach the mainstream, the vision of electrified highways has resurfaced and theSwedenis at the forefront.  An important proponent of the idea was Volvo with this concept called “continuous electric drive” which means the electric cars receive ongoing recharging from electrified highways pavement.

Sweden develop a fast track plan to electrify a62 milestretch of road in the far northern reaches of the country as an eco friendly way to shuttle loads of iron in trolley dumb electric trucks between new mine and a train depot.Swedenmight become fossil fuel free by 2030, because now 80% of carbon emission comes from goods transport.

This concept is interesting because of two things: the electrified road would be many times cheaper to deploy than building a two lane railroad, and the electric trucks on the road would be able to travel much faster than current electric trolley buses and electric trucks.

A last year report of the Swedish Energy Administration concluded that using battery technology for long distance trucking will be difficult to make cost effective due to weight and cost of sufficient battery power electrifying the roads to support hybrid electric trucks as a more reasonable alternative.

Probably is not suitable for private vehicles due to the long distance between the intelligent connector and the roof of electric cars but a group of engineers headed by Gunnar Asplundd at Elways inSwedenare working on electrifying highways from below.

Till June the Swedish Traffic Administration will decide whether to start the fast track highway electrification project near Pajala estimated to cost almost $367million.

Via