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Automotive

Electric road powers Renault EVs

By Ben Coxworth
May 18, 2017
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A specially-outfitted Renault Kangoo ZE travels along the test track
Renault
A specially-outfitted Renault Kangoo ZE travels along the test track
Renault
The DEVC system is being developed as part of the €9 million European Union FABRIC project
Renault

Many people worry that if they had an electric car, its battery range wouldn't allow them to get from one charging station to another. That wouldn't be a problem, however, if the vehicle was able to draw power from the road as it was driving. Renault, Qualcomm Technologies and sustainable transportation company Vedecom have taken a step towards making that happen, with the recent demonstration of a dynamic wireless electric vehicle charging (DEVC) system.

The demo took place this Thursday on a 100-meter (328-ft) test track built by Vedecom and located in Versailles, France, near Paris.

That track has a series of pads embedded in it, which wirelessly transmitted up to 20 kilowatts of power to receivers installed in the undersides of two Renault Kangoo ZE electric vehicles driving overhead. The technology was able to charge the vehicles' batteries at speeds of over 100 km/h (62 mph), with them travelling in either direction.

The DEVC system is being developed as part of the €9 million European Union FABRIC project
Renault

Further testing will be conducted by Vedecom, and is intended to address issues such as vehicle identification and authorization upon entering the track, power level agreement between track and vehicle, plus variations in speed and alignment of the vehicle as it travels along the track.

The DEVC system is being developed as part of the €9 million European Union FABRIC (FeAsiBility analysis and development of on-Road chargIng solutions for future electriC vehicles) project, which is made up of 25 partnering organizations.

Source: Renault

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AutomotiveRenaultElectric VehiclesQualcommRoadWireless Charging
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Ben Coxworth
Based out of Edmonton, Canada, Ben Coxworth has been writing for New Atlas since 2009 and is presently Managing Editor for North America. An experienced freelance writer, he previously obtained an English BA from the University of Saskatchewan, then spent over 20 years working in various markets as a television reporter, producer and news videographer. Ben is particularly interested in scientific innovation, human-powered transportation, and the marine environment.
3 comments
LordInsidious
Awesome to see progress in the items holding back widespread electric car adoption.
Daishi
Are they measuring the EMR/EMF from doing this? Also a solution I would like to see is one that maybe charges a capacitor through contact while stopped at a light. You wouldn't need a ton of juice because you would get another charge the next time you stop at another light. That mostly addresses the issue of limited capacitor size. You could use the same hybrid model of a capacitor + battery with just a regular charging network too to help get meaningful range in only a 5 or 10 minute charge.
F. Tuijn
This is a step in the right direction. Vehicles should be a light as possible and not carry heavy batteries. Vehicles can navigate using the antennae in the road and avoid the complex Google car and similar installations that are expensive in many ways. Let's go for two wheel vehicles kept upright by a pair of gyroscopes that are also used to store energy, enough for the vehicle to be driven manually at low speed say 25 khp or 15 mph from the main road to home and back. A two wheel motor car with one gyroscope was built in 1913 by Wolseley but with modern technology it can be made a success. In this way we can massively reduce weight, energy and especially fuel consumption, pollution, noise. The place to introduce it first is probably the Chinese coastal area with its huge cities with air pollution.
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