We call it the “electric highway”. One day it could allow the battery of an electric vehicle to be recharged while driving. Invisible to the eyes of motorists, the device would work by induction, installed about ten centimetres below the lining, on the longitudinal axis of the right lane. It will be tested in 2025 on the A10, south-west of Paris, on a 2-kilometre stretch near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines.
As part of a call for proposals from the public bank Bpifrance, the concessionaire Vinci Autoroutes was selected, together with the Gustave-Eiffel University and the industrial company Hutchinson, to determine the energy efficiency of this system, which is in place on national roads in Suede. The French test, valued at 26 million euros, is financed by the State.
“Roads provide 87% of the movement of people and goods. Even in the most optimistic scenario of switching to rail, they will account for more than 75% of journeys in 2050. So, they are the roads that need to be decarbonised.”says Christophe Hug, Deputy General Manager in charge of environmental policy at Vinci Autoroutes. “This is particularly true on motorways, where trucks emit 45% of greenhouse gases due to their greater numbers, compared to an average of 25% across the entire French road network.”underlines.
Magnetic field
The goal of inductive charging is to space out the stops required for recharging from a fixed terminal and divide the size of the batteries by two, or even three. “It is not a technological gadget”“This is the first time that a car has been driven by a magnetic field, and this is why it is so important to have a magnetic field,” says Louis du Pasquier, director of carbon-free mobility at Vinci Autoroutes. Copper coils buried underground and powered by the grid emit a magnetic field that is transformed back into electricity by a sensor installed under the truck’s chassis. “With 200 kilowatts of power, we could recharge 50% of a car’s battery by driving for ten minutes in the right lane”explains Mr. du Pasquier.
“This is extremely attractive, because it would free us from the constraints of highway charging, while reducing the need for critical materials used in battery manufacturing.”“This is a great opportunity for us,” said Virginie Delcroix, director of sustainable development at Geodis, the logistics subsidiary of SNCF. “Pending the harmonisation of technologies in Europe, Vinci Autoroutes, on the same site on the A10, will be testing a second solution, which involves charging the battery by connecting the truck to a flat rail fixed to the road, using retractable platforms. This is a system designed by Alstom and is in use on the trams of Tours and Bordeaux.”
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