For the first time in the U.S., a roadway has wirelessly charged an electric heavy-duty truck driving at highway speeds, demonstrating key technology that could help lower the costs of building electrified highways for all electric vehicles to use.

The experimental highway segment tests a patent-pending system designed by Purdue University engineers.

“With this breakthrough system, Purdue has shown that powering large commercial vehicles wirelessly is not just technically feasible but could be a practical and scalable solution for real-world highway transportation,” said Nadia Gkritza, a Purdue professor of civil and construction engineering and agricultural and biological engineering.  

The system demonstrates “dynamic wireless power transfer,” with “dynamic” referring to vehicles in motion. A few other states and countries have also begun testing roads designed to enable dynamic wireless power transfer. But making this possible for highways – and particularly for semis and other heavy-duty vehicles — is a unique challenge. Because vehicles travel so much faster on highways than city roads, they need to be charged at higher power levels.

The Purdue-designed wireless charging system works at power levels much higher than what has been demonstrated in the U.S. so far. Using the test segment in West Lafayette, this system delivered 190 kilowatts to a truck traveling at 65 miles per hour. It also allows highway pavement to provide power to EVs similarly to how smartphones use magnetic fields to wirelessly charge when placed on a pad.

Source: Purdue University News

Image: Purdue University photo/Kelsey Lefever