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Slotcar track that has been scaled up, so: arcing, dangerous, will wear, finicky as hell and impossible to change lanes without losing contact. Probably not the best idea but props for trying.
Why is this considered "the world's first electrified road for charging vehicles"? Compared to https://www.wired.com/2013/08/induction-charged-buses/ for example. Does induction based charging not count as electrified? Is it that the Korean one was for their buses only, not general passenger cars?
The difference is that the one you link has a few induction plates along the route while the other has rails from one end to the other. It's like saying "why do we need electric cars? We already have hybrids!" There are also buses around here that charge at special points along the route. That doesn't make the roads electrified though. Great job from Sweden, no matter if it is world first or not.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would never be everywhere at not in somewhere as vast as Europe or US. To jump on OPs bandwagon. It would make sense to have this on highways as opposed to surface streets. Distance is one of the limiting factors for a lot of people buying electric. In the US interstates are at least maintained by the Feds and are pretty standard in look and feel. It would probably be easier to implement nationwide.
Not going to work in the snow belt. Maintenance on this will be crazy.
This doesn't make much sense as an urban project, where chargers are close by, lane-switching is frequent, people are likely to be on the road, and which the article invites you to think about by comparing the cost to an urban tram. but it makes ton of sense for long-distance highway journeys, which is a problem that really needs solving before electric vehicles can be practical.
I guess the limit comes down to how much power the rails can produce and how fast the vehicles can charge. If a vehicle can charge at N times the rate they use that energy at highway speeds, then it needs to have at least 1/N of the road populated with charging rails.
If this becomes a widely adopted standard, maybe car manufacturers will look into using a low-capacity battery that can accept high current as a buffer. (Maybe a supercapacitor?)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But those rails are on otherwise off-limit tracks and 'third rail' solutions are notoriously dangerous. This system has the two rails closely spaced side-by-side so it may be a bit safer but in the presence of moisture it could be dangerous too. It's basically a scaled up version of a slot car track.
Highways are already off-limit and notoriously dangerous.
This doesn't make much sense as an urban project, where chargers are close by, lane-switching is frequent, people are likely to be on the road, and which the article invites you to think about by comparing the cost to an urban tram. but it makes ton of sense for long-distance highway journeys, which is a problem that really needs solving before electric vehicles can be practical.
Although if you had this everywhere , you could probably do away with most of the batteries on electric cars, making them a lot cheaper and lighter.
It would be cheaper and more easily scalable to fit more charging points in parking spaces at shopping centres, motorway service stations and so on. Why do we keep on inventing new complicated ways of doing things instead of standardising and exploiting the things that we already know work?
If electric vehicles only had to have a range of a few tens of km (similar to many existing plugin hybrids) they could be built dramatically cheaper. This would also be ideal for buses, lorries and similar.