motorway that recharges electric vehicles while driving undergoes testing near paris

"The way it works is that under the asphalt of the A10 motorway, engineers have placed induction coils along 1.5 kilometers of road. These are connected to an electrical power supply and controlled by sensors and software, so when an electric vehicle with a receiver coil drives over this section, energy moves from the road coil to the receiver coil using a magnetic field, recharging the automobile, especially the heavyweight ones like delivery trucks and vans."

"The receiver then sends this energy to the vehicle's battery while it moves, and the automobile doesn't need to stop or plug in since its ride is being recharged automatically through the road with a process called dynamic wireless charging. The catch is that each electric vehicle needs to have a receiver installed before it gets recharged on this motorway."

Charge as You Drive is a collaboration between VINCI Autoroutes, Electreon, VINCI Construction, Gustave Eiffel University, and Hutchinson deploying induction coils under 1.5 kilometers of the A10 motorway southwest of Paris. Coils connect to an electrical power supply and are controlled by sensors and software so vehicles fitted with receiver coils receive energy through a magnetic field while moving, charging batteries without stopping or plugging in. Four prototype vehicles—a heavy truck, a utility van, a passenger car, and a bus—were equipped to measure performance in live traffic. Materials and pavement structure underwent two years of strength and durability testing and large-scale traffic-simulator evaluations at specialized research facilities.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine