This City Aims to Have First Wireless Electric Roads

Close your eyes and imagine a city without gas stations or vehicle emissions. What would it look like? That’s exactly what the city of Tel Aviv in Israel did and it’s becoming a lot closer to a reality.

The city is working on creating wireless electric roads that can charge electric vehicles while they drive, according to CNN. The Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality is working on a pilot program in collaboration with the local public bus company and ElectReon that will reduce air pollution in the city.

The Israeli startup ElectReon, based in the north, has already installed a 1.6 km stretch of electric road in Sweden for buses and trucks on a route that runs between the airport and the center of Visby. The Tel Aviv project will run from the Tel Aviv University train station to the bus terminal in a nearby suburb.

While other countries are creating eHighway systems for vehicles that are similar to electric trams and trains, the electric infrastructure in the pilot program will be under the roadway and will charge buses that are specially equipped with a receiver on the floor of the vehicle.

The system consists of a set of copper coils that are placed under the asphalt according to ElectReon. The company said on its website: “Energy is transferred from the electricity grid to the road infrastructure and manages communication with the approaching vehicles.”

The municipality told The Times of Israel that it plans to look into adding other forms of transportation to the electric road including EV trucks, cars, and autonomous vehicles. The roadway was prepared in late September 2020.

Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv – Yafo said in a press release: “We are constantly working to reduce air pollution in the city, and our strategic action plan to prepare for climate change has placed the fight against pollution at the top of the municipality’s environmental agenda. If the pilot is successful, we will evaluate — together with the Transportation Ministry — its expansion to additional locations in the city.”

The city is working on other ways to cut air pollution according to The Times of Israel. That includes turning the city into a low emissions zone. In the first phase, 40,000 commercial diesel vehicles will be banned unless they have filters. The next phase will tighten the restrictions to exclude vehicles that do not meet European pollution standards and the last phase will only allow EVs into the city.

“Electric transportation will assist municipal efforts to reduce air pollution and noise, and assist the transition to green modes of transport, which will contribute to improving the quality of life and the environment for residents and visitors to the city,” Meital Lehavi, deputy mayor for transportation said in the press release.

The Israeli government plans on converting to all electric vehicles by 2030 by no longer allowing the sale of cars that use fossil fuels. It’s part of a wider plan to move the country away from depending on gasoline, diesel, and coal. Electrified roadways will go a long way toward  making this plan a reality.