Solaris Sverige, a subsidiary of Solaris Bus & Coach, has announced its participation in EVolution Road, a project that aims to create an electric road capable of automatically detecting and charging EVs in cities and on highways.
A Solaris-built trolleybus with a specially developed pick-up aggregate will be used for test drives on a 1km-long innovatory road equipped with 1m-long electric rails at a demonstration site in the city of Lund in southern Sweden.
The vehicle’s traction batteries will be charged as the pick-up receiver under the trolleybus connects with the conductive rail installed in the road.
Solaris is responsible for developing the technical integration between the onboard charging systems and the custom-made conductive pick-up installed under the vehicle.
Construction of the demonstration site will commence in the first quarter of 2020 and the project will run for three years. The total investment is €9m (£8m) and the procurer and main financier is the Swedish Transport Administration.
Initiated by Swedish company Elonroad together with the University of Lund’s faculty of engineering, EVolution Road ultimately aims for EVs to be able to be charged both while driving or while at a standstill, for instance when parked.
The road uses wireless communication to identify approaching EVs and switches on the power in 1m-long segments directly underneath the vehicle. The power can only be supplied in areas where the pick-up receivers can connect with the rail and receive power.
In all other segments in front and behind the moving vehicles, the power will be turned off, making it ssuitable to install this type of charging in cities and on highways.
According to Solaris, installation of the hardware will cause little interference to the existing urban infrastructure as no masts or overhead wires are needed. Furthermore, no side-rails are necessary to protect from collision with pantograph chargers’ masts.
It is currently assumed that charges for using the electric road will be made automatically due to the wireless communication between the vehicle and the road.
Other partners involved in the EVolution Road project include the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, Lund municipality, Innovation Skåne, Kraftringen Energi, Ramboll and Skånetrafiken.
