Electric road

In order to better understand how electric roads are affected by varying weather conditions and climate zones, the electric road in the Evolution Road project will now be winter tested in Kramfors, Norrland. Important knowledge about, among other things, mechanical durability, snow removal and friction is expected to be learned from the winter tests.

– Testing how the electric road’s properties are affected by snow and ice in a colder climate is important knowledge in our project. These are tests that could not take place in Skåne’s mild climate, says Anna Wilkens, innovation leader from Innovation Skåne.

– We are looking forward to finding out how the technology copes with the more challenging weather and ground conditions out on public roads in the north, says Sofia Magnusson, project manager at the Swedish Transport Administration.

Forty meters of electric road will be installed at the beginning of October on road 333 outside Kramfors in Norrland. Here, among other things, they will test how frost and ice affect the lifespan and settlement of both the electric road rails and the road, investigate robustness in terms of mechanical impact from snow removal and ice scraping, and test the friction over time.

The tests continue until spring 2024 and are carried out by Elonroad, Ramboll and VTI. The tests are carried out on a public road, which is open to traffic throughout the test period. Since the focus of the tests is not charging, the electric road outside Kramfors is passive, which means that the electricity is not connected.

About electric roads

Electric roads is a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles which means that the vehicles can charge while driving and thus do not have to stop to charge the batteries. With electric roads, significantly smaller batteries are required in the vehicles with advantages such as less environmental impact and lighter vehicles.

The electric road being tested in the Evolution Road project is a conductive ground-based solution, which means that the vehicle has direct contact with charging rails on the road via a pantograph. The technology is developed by the Swedish company Elonroad AB in collaboration with Lund University of Technology.

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