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Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

purdue.edu

41–47 of 47 posts

Re: Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

#41
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#1 is about cars not trucks. You could stick something physically tall enough but you’d run into serious aerodynamic issues. #2 There’s wireless charging systems more efficient when using power directly than plugging in and charging an EV’s batteries. (edit with a 9 inch air gap) That’s quite a bit of wiggle room if the goal is indefinite range rather than actually charging cars on the freeway. So yes there’s definit…

This just simply isn’t going to be an efficient, cost effective, or maintainable solution relative to alternatives. We’re also not going to have solar roads for the same reason. Sure take moonshots, but they should make sense from first principles.

People already pay a big premium on electricity rates for high speed charging. At ~98% coil to coil efficiency it’s quite competitive.

Semi’s need ~30kW for unlimited distance with multiple drivers and about half that with a single driver and mandatory rest periods. Cars have significantly lower requirements making this a long way from a moon shot.

Re: Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

#43

Debunked by EEVBlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGwHRImfE4E&t=0

Hahaha, I remember our favorite, plucky EE presenter opining about this. Solar freak'n roadways and friends must be zombies because these dumb ideas just won't die.

Re: Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand as someone that must have lived their whole life being served by the MBTA it might not be amazing (its also not amazing by european standards, i definitely rode better stuff in Spain, Portugal, England and other places) but by AMERICAN standards the MBTA is definitely one of the best public transportation systems there are. I'd recommend you take SEPTA in PHL or use the shitty stuff we have here in Miami…

USA’s 4th largest city (Houston) has essentially zero usable public transport. Anything remotely usable a few times per week by more than 5% of the city’s population is amazing by USA standards. Houston population is 2.2M in the city, 7.2M metro area (most of whom at least regularly spend time in or commute to Houston proper).

Same for here in FL, there’s not a single city with any usable public transportation (other than Disney’s).

Re: Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

#45
post #29
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moscow was a trolleybus capital of the world just recently. I'm still salty that they destroyed it in just a couple of years, replacing with regular buses and a handful of electric ones (which still require a small ICE engine in winter to stay warm, ridiculously enough)

Was there ever a reason given?

I guess same like in Prague when they purged their Trolley buses in 1950s - Gas was cheaper back then. MUCH cheaper.

Re: Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

#46
post #13

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths we will go to overcomplicate transportation just so everyone has to continue to buy and maintain their own vehicle.

Obviously you didn’t read the article because its talking about freight and trucks, which is how the majority of US shipping economy is run. So many low effort comments on this site recently.

The full title says: "Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles big and small as they drive"

It's obviously about more than just freight trucks even if that's their initial intention for the project.

Re: Building the first highway segment in the U.S. that can charge electric vehicles

#47
post #29
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moscow was a trolleybus capital of the world just recently. I'm still salty that they destroyed it in just a couple of years, replacing with regular buses and a handful of electric ones (which still require a small ICE engine in winter to stay warm, ridiculously enough)

Was there ever a reason given?

"electric buses are the future", and "wires are ugly and expensive to maintain". Also trolleybus depots are taking some valuable commercial space at the end of the lines, it's easier to have a bus depot on city outskirts. For most of those trolleybuses with a small battery (semi-autonomous) could be a much, much cheaper and reasonable answer, but I guess someone made a good buck on depot real estate or electric buses or whatever.
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