E- Mobility Revolution: Country’s First Electric Road in Tel Aviv

The multi-billion dollar public transit bus industry is under increasing regulatory and public policy pressure to adopt clean transportation solutions that will reduce CO2 emissions and dependence on oil without compromising the fleet’s service, and yet curbing the rise of operating costs. Electric mobility can fulfill these desires.

The common approach today is an electric vehicle based on a battery. The main challenge concerning this approach is the limitation of the energy storage capacity. The battery weighs 1/3 of the vehicle and is prohibitively expensive. It reduces the usable space, yet still cannot produce enough power for long distances. To make matters worse, the need for costly battery replacements every few years decreases adoption of electric public transportation even further.

Israeli startup ElectRoad has developed a technology designed to revolutionize E- mobility by producing dynamic wireless electrification system for urban transportation and large-scale adoption of purely electric buses.

Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) developed by ElectRoad allows charging electric cars while they drive over a chain of copper loops embedded into the asphalt and connected to a power converter at the side of the road.

Benefits of the DWPT are many:

•     Zero emission without any need for a battery or charging spots
•     Reduction of the total cost of operation by 75%
•     High efficiency that exceeds 88%
•     Energy sharing between vehicles within the grid reaching 90%
•     Easy implementation with minimal changes to existing infrastructure at a rate of one kilometer of electric lines per day

Tel Aviv will become one of the first cities to test under-the-road electric charging beds. Buses will be able to travel for up to 5 kilometers on a regular road after being charged on the electric road. An average electrified road is expected to pay for itself within three years.

Source: Jewish Business News