Germany tests wireless charging for electric cars on the move

A 1 km section of charging road surface will be built in the German city of Balingen. Wireless charging of electric vehicles on the move is being tested in Germany. Not long ago, Toyota received some criticism for ads that referred to its electrically assisted cars as “automatic charging hybrids.” But imagine if you could really charge an electric car while driving. The latest step toward making that dream a reality is the announcement that a German bus will soon charge on a wireless charging highway.

Although the project involves only one bus, it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to see that the technology could be implemented in cars and other places around the world in the coming years. If cars can be charged on the move, they can be built with smaller batteries, making them lighter and more efficient, not to mention significantly cheaper.

Inductive charging technology works in much the same way as it does in our smartphones. Electricity is transferred from magnetic coils in the ground and through the air to another in the car. Static charging pads for cars have existed for some time, but charging roads are more complicated and are at an earlier stage of development.

This is how wireless charging on the move could work

Wireless charging of electric vehicles on the move is being tested in Germany. For the Balingen project, Israeli company Electreon and German EnBW have teamed up to equip 1 km of Electric Road System (ERS) along a stretch of German motorway, plus two static charging stations that will be placed where the bus routinely stops during its schedule. Electreon will receive up to $3.2 million in funding to build the charging infrastructure.

This is not the first time we have heard about inductive charging roads, although it is the first that the public will benefit from. Electreon and EnBW previously carried out a successful pilot study at EnBW’s training centre in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Eurovia and Electreon recently announced a project to electrify part of the German motorway in Bavaria. Sweden has its own wireless charging road project, and Stellantis opened a simulated road test centre to study inductive charging in Italy.