Wireless charging as a pathway towards decarbonation
In October 2020, Electreon signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Italian toll road infrastructure company Societa' di Progetto Brebemi SpA to install the company's wireless Electric Road system in infrastructure projects in Italy. In November 2020, Electreon announced the beginning of the pilot, the “Arena of the Future'' project in Brescia, Italy, which launched in December 2021. This project demonstrates how a toll road can be transformed into a shared invisible charging asset for electric vehicles.
The one kilometer test track is operated with Electreon’s cloud-based software, which enables the monitoring of a variety of indices such as vehicle charging and energy transmission from the road. It is notable that the in-road coil segments for this project were installed in two working days by a local Italian team, trained by the Electreon team. In addition, the road section was paved using four different types of asphalt to test the system’s performance. Electreon’s fully integrated vehicle components are being demonstrated on the road with a Stellantis passenger car and an Iveco electric bus. Testing of the technology and further research will be conducted throughout 2022.
Arena of the Future results
The project in Italy showcased several key concluding results:
- The project was the first Electric Road System that charged a commercial EV (e-bus) and passenger EV simultaneously, underlining the versatility of Electreon’s system to function as a shared charging platform for both large and small EVs.
- As part of testing, the passenger EV and eBus finished their drive with more charge than they began with and charged from the same roadway, showcasing that in specific use case scenarios, on-route charging can actually end up charging a vehicle’s battery to the point where end of day or overnight charging might not be needed at all.
- Specifically, the e-bus drove three straight days without loosing any power; in the same project, the passenger EV was 22% charged at the beginning, and reached 48% charge at the end of the event – it increased in battery SOC while driving on the dynamic charging track.
- From a technical point of view, as long as the energy being consumed while driving is less than the energy being provided by the road itself– an EV can actually end its journey with more charge than it began, and all while driving, not needing to stop to charge.
Project Details
- Construction start date: November 2021
- Operation start date: December 2021
- Project status: Live
- Application: Inter-city toll road
- Vehicle type: Electric busses and passenger vehicles
- Roadway length: 1.05 km (~0.7 miles)
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