What’s billed as the nation’s first wireless-charging public roadway for electric vehicles has been installed just west of downtown Detroit.
According to AP News, copper inductive charging coils allow vehicles equipped with receivers to charge up their batteries while driving, idling or parking above the coils.
“This will be revolutionary for electrifying vehicles,” said Bradley C. Wieferich, director for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). “We’re going to use this as a springboard to learn and understand how things work. But ultimately: How can we scale this up? How can this eventually be something that we use across the state of Michigan and the United States?”
The quarter-mile segment of 14th Street, opened in November 2023, will be used to test and perfect the technology ahead of making it available to the public within a few years, according to the MDOT.
The technology belongs to Electreon, an Israel-based developer of wireless charging solutions for electric vehicles. The company has contracts for similar roadways in Israel, Sweden, Italy and Germany. The pilot initiative in Michigan was announced in 2021 by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
