The EV charging highway is expected to complete its construction in 2025
In a project led by Swedish transport administration Trafikverket, Sweden is constructing the first permanent EV charging highway in the world, which will allow EVs to be charged while they are moving. Four temporary electrified highways have already been tested across the nation, including one in the southern Swedish city of Lund.
At the heart of the nation’s three largest cities (Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö), the selected European route E20 highway will link logistic hubs between Hallsberg and Örebro. There are three different charging systems: catenary system, conductive (ground-based) system, and inductive system. The EV charging highway technique for route E20 has not yet been confirmed.
Only heavy-duty vehicles may utilize the catenary system, which employs overhead wires to supply power to a certain sort of bus or tram. Heavy-duty trucks and personal vehicles may both be charged conductively as long as a conduction infrastructure, such a rail, is present. The cars are then charged through a stick that touches the rail.
In 2018, Trafikverket inaugurated the world’s first charging rail for EVs on public roads linking Stockholm’s Arlanda airport and a logistics location in Rosersberg. In 2020, Trafikverket constructed a wireless electric road in the city of Visby for heavy buses and trucks.
In a research published in March, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden concluded that the best way to transition to EVs would be to install electric roadways on 25% of the busiest national and European roads and provide home charging for EVs. According to experts, EV batteries could be developed “significantly smaller, at best only one-third of the current size.”
After its completion in 2025, the EV charging highway in Sweden is expected to add another 1,900 miles of electric road by 2045. Other nations are also considering installing electric roadways, including France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.