Swedish automaker, Volvo has announced plans to study the potential of electric roads that charge buses while they are driving on the roads. The study will be carried out with the Swedish Transport Administration to help in further developing sustainable transportation.
For testing purposes, a stretch of electric road may be built in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo is already testing electric rails built into the road as a way of powering long-haul trucks. The company has also been producing environmentally-friendly electric buses that are used in Gothenburg for quite some time now.
The latest experiment will look at the feasibility of combining both of these concepts. This new method will allow vehicles to be charged wirelessly while they are on the move, without them having to stand stationary at a charging point for hours. Electromagnetic induction will be used to charge the vehicles, a method already used in Korea.
The Swedish Transport Administration will put together a proposal for building a section of road that is equipped with the charging technology, which is crucial for carrying out the study. This section of road will be on a bus route in Gothenburg that is already in use, and the data collected from the tests will be used to predict the use of such technology in the future.
This technology is sure to go in favour of the environmental movement, which is drastically changing the transport sector all over the world. According to executive vice president for corporate sustainability and public affairs of the Volvo Group, Niklas Gustavsson, “Vehicles capable of being charged directly from the road during operation could become the next pioneering step in the development towards reduced environmental impact.”
We hope that the tests are a success and we soon see these buses on the roads!