Smart Road Can Charge Cars in Motion, Super-Expensive to Build Though

While carmakers are speeding up their work on addressing the range anxiety, researchers are trying to bring their contribution to the whole thing with another approach: by developing technology that could help improve the range of an EV from outside the car.

A team of researchers from Cornell University, for example, has invented a road that charges EVs as they drive, an idea that comes with several big benefits.

First and foremost, this means you no longer have to stop to charge your EV, which in turn allows you to save precious time when heading to any destination that wouldn’t be in your current battery range. Then, it pretty much helps obtain unlimited range no matter the car model, as the battery capacity is no longer important since you can recharge the vehicle as you drive.

The whole system is based on an approach that may sound familiar to tech-savvy people. Researchers looked at the current inductive charging that the tech world is already using for smartphones and smartwatches, which requires devices just to be placed on top of a charger to get their extra juice.

They then look into ways to improve this idea and make it roadworthy, so they turned to high-frequency electric fields that would essentially allow for a vehicle to recharge up to a ground clearance of 18 centimeters (7 inches). Needless to say, it wouldn’t be the fastest charging around, as a typical Nissan Leaf may need up to five hours to get a full charge; on the other hand, that isn’t necessarily important given you’d obtain unlimited range anyway.

The researchers claim the charging plates, which would have a similar role to the ones used for charging phones, can be installed at a convenient distance on the road to allow for continuous charging. But the bigger problem is they need to be embedded right into the road, which means the infrastructure would have to be rebuilt from scratch to adapt to this new technology.

However, the team of researchers explain this isn’t necessarily such a big drawback because the existing roads are already aging and sooner or later, a modern rework would be needed anyway. Furthermore, they explain that only one lane can be fitted with charging plates. As a result, cars can enter it only when they need to recharge and then move to the standard lanes for regular driving.