This technology uses coils embedded into the road surface to charge cars while they drive
Stellantis conducted tests with an electric Fiat 500 and found it was able to maintain highway speeds without using its battery
This means EVs could theoretically have an infinite range when using conductive roads
Tests conducted in Italy by Stellantis show that Inductive charging could be used to eliminate range anxiety and charging stops on long road trips.
By using coils embedded in the pavement, inductive charging creates a magnetic field that can be picked up by a receiver installed on electric vehicles.
This energy can be used directly by the motors, which means the battery isn’t drained and drivers can then benefit from its whole range once they get off an inductive road.
This also means that the range of the electric vehicles using the specially adapted roads would be virtually infinite since their battery would never run out as long as the inductive system is operational.
Stellantis is working on this technology with a number of partners and it has recently it can work by having an electric Fiat 500 drive at highway speeds on its specially designed test track without using any of the power stored in its battery.
The automaker is confident this technology could be used on a wide scale and it claims inductive charging is almost ready to be released to the public.
Among the claims made by Stellantis about the safety and viability of the technology, it said that the magnetic field created by the road is not strong enough to affect the occupants of the vehicle and it also said that inductive roads will be free of cables and safe for pedestrians.
Implementing such a technology will be very expensive, but Stellantis and its partners engineered the system to allow the use of thin aluminum cables instead of thick copper wires, which reduces the costs and makes the supply of materials easier.
