Sweden's electrified road charges moving vehicles

Showing their respect to the environment friendly measures which are being taken by the world to preserve the natural beauty, the growing number of buyers are also contributing their respective shares by spending more money on cars manufactured to tackle the environmental hazards.

Making a huge investment in this regard, the world’ major automakers have also introduced electric vehicles, which are also known as environmentally friendly cars, and related technology to minimize the threat to already worst atmosphere.

In a pleasant move, the roads, which were largely designed for the vehicles that run only on gas or diesel fuel, are being developed with a new technology that would help reduce drivers’ main complaints about charging the batteries during a long distance.

An electrified road in Sweden can charge moving vehicles and could potentially help cut the high cost of electric cars.

A electrified rail embedded in the tarmac of the 2-km-long (1.24 miles) road charges the truck automatically as it travels above it. A movable arm attached to the truck detects the rail’s location in the road, and charging stops when the vehicle is overtaking or coming to a halt.

The project, involving multiple companies, is called eRoad Arlanda. The truck’s battery is charged from the electrified road as it travels.

According to official, the technology works in a simple way. A 15-centimeter-wide electrical rail is built into the road. The vehicle contains equipment that automatically senses the electrified road. An arm then lowers from the vehicle to make contact with the rail. The system is designed to make continuous charging on the road effortless for the driver.

He was reported to have said; "If you pass another vehicle, or if you leave the electric road, or if you come to a roundabout where we have no rails, it goes up automatically. So once again, you don’t have to think about it at all as a driver.”

He added that the system can be built into existing roads to reduce costs. He estimates that putting in a highly developed version of eRoadArlanda’s technology would cost about 1 million dollars per kilometer. That amount sounds like a big number and could add up fast over thousands of kilometers. According to him the cost is still a lot less when compared to other transportation infrastructure projects.

It is, of course, hard to estimate how it would really work as it seems to be a science fiction idea, but the environmental protection is one of the most important issues to solve at present.