Volvo Group planning ’electric roads’ for buses

19/05/2014

In collaboration with the Swedish Transport Administration, they will study the potential for building the electric roads, which would charge the buses using inductive charging.

For test purposes, an electric road of up to 500m could be built in central Gothenburg next year. The benefit of these roads would be quieter and more climate-friendly public transport.

Using an electric road, vehicle batteries would continuously be charged wirelessly during operation by transferring energy from the electricity grid to a vehicle (as opposed to charging the bus while it is stationary at a charging station). The technology being studied is called inductive charging, whereby the energy is transferred wirelessly to the underside of the vehicle by equipment built into the road.

“Vehicles capable of being charged directly from the road during operation could become the next pioneering step in the development towards reduced environmental impact, and this is fully in line with our vision of becoming the world leader in sustainable transport solutions,” says Niklas Gustavsson, Executive Vice President, Corporate Sustainability & Public Affairs of the Volvo Group.

“Close cooperation between society and industry is needed for such a development to be possible and we look forward to investigating the possibilities together with the City of Gothenburg,”

For years, Volvo has been offering hybrid buses with a traditional diesel engine supplemented by an electrical engine. Three Volvo plug-in-hybrid buses are already in operation in Gothenbur.