This electric road can charge electric vehicles on the go.
Detroit has just revolutionized the EV game with this new charging method.
It’s public, accessible, and will charge an EV effortlessly.
All you have to do is drive down it.
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There’s a reason why Detroit is known as Motor City.
The area is a leader in the automotive industry, being home to both the first paved road and the first electronic traffic signal in America.
Now Detroit has another first to add to the list.
A one-mile strip of exciting new technology has been installed in Corktown.
Driving over this piece of road will now seamlessly charge EVs.
There are rubber-coated copper coils embedded into the road.
These correspond with a receiver that can be added to the undercarriage of any EV.
When driving over the electric road, the copper coils under the asphalt will interact with the magnet in the receiver, causing an electric charge.
Cars will also be able to charge simply by parking on this stretch of road.
“We want to get rid of this myth of range anxiety,” Justine Johnson, Chief Mobility Officer of Michigan, says.
“You want to know that when you get to a location you’ll be able to charge your vehicle.”
While this is the first of its kind in the US, it’s not the first electric road in the world.
Sweden unveiled an electric highway in 2018, leading the EU race to carbon-neutral status as per the Paris Agreement.
But this innovation isn’t cheap: this one-mile stretch cost $6 million to install.
Officials say, however, that the costs will go down as the project expands.
Some worry whether an entire electric road is safe for the public.
This technology is considered safe for pedestrians and animals and will only be activated when a car with the correct receiver drives over it.
The public should be able to buy licenses for these receivers in the next few years.
In general, people have had a positive response to this revolutionary move.
“Now this is innovation,” one commenter said.
“Gives the whole different meaning to Electric Avenue,” another said.
