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The future of electric car charging

2024-09-16 21:13:07, Tech CNA

The state of Indiana is testing a stretch of road built specifically to charge electric car batteries. VOA correspondent Kane Frabaugh was in Lafayette to see firsthand how this technology is transforming the way electric vehicles are charged.

Engineers hope that the 400-meter segment on Highway 52 near Lafayette, Indiana, will be the starting point that will transform the future of electric car charging.

VOA spoke with Mr. Aaron Brovont, an electrical engineer with Purdue University.

"We are installing a prototype of a dynamic wireless power transfer system. In other words, remote charging".

The engineer explains that this technology that the team from Purdue University is developing is like wireless phone charging.

"It's basically the same idea," says the engineer, but on a much larger scale.

The cable system installed on Highway 52 aims to charge the vehicles' batteries as they travel to their destination.

"The long-term goal is for electrified highways that keep the batteries of high-tonnage trucks fully charged as they travel," says engineer Aaron Brovont.

"At the moment we are placing charging equipment in corridors with high truck traffic."

Civil engineering professor John Haddock designed and tested charging coils that go under asphalt at a Perdue University facility.

He says the trucking industry needs to adapt to this technology in order to afford the high cost of large-scale implementation. But the industry needs proof that the technology works before considering switching to electric truck fleets.

“The trucking industry needs to embrace this technology because charging ordinary electric cars alone will not be enough to finance it. Personally, from the contacts with them, this industry is ready as soon as we offer a product in which they have confidence", says Professor Haddock.

The engineer says that if these trials succeed in convincing the industry and this technology is implemented across the country, it will change the way electric cars are charged.

"If this technology was widespread everywhere, electric cars would not need very large batteries. It would reduce the price of electric cars as it is greatly affected by the high cost of batteries", says Mr. Haddock.

"Many people call it 'science fiction' becoming reality"

Blake Dollier with the Indiana Department of Transportation says he's proud to be involved in the first trial of its kind in the United States. He says he hopes drivers will no longer have to worry about charging their batteries.

"The success of this technology would reduce the driver's anxiety about the distance covered by an electric car. We hope that will be achieved," says Blake Dollier with the Indiana Department of Transportation.

"It's a huge achievement because it hasn't been done before, at least on this scale," says Professor Haddock.

Engineer Haddock believes that this technology could not only change the way a car is driven, but also who drives it, which would accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technology.