Road Strips to Power Electric Cars in South Korea

Innovative new environmental technology is being developed in South Korea, which involves supplying power to electric cars through the actual roads they drive on.  While experiments at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology remain ongoing, the proposal sees large, current-transferring strips being laid down into the roads.  These strips could be anything up to 300 metres in length and approximately one metre in width.

The cars themselves would be equipped with magnets, in effect, and these would take in energy without ever directly touching the road.

"If we place these strips on about 10 percent of roadways in a city, we could power electric vehicles”, project manager, Cho Dong-ho, explained.

To date, a single prototype incorporating the road technology has been assembled on which to test small electric vehicles, specifically golf carts. 

Electric Car Technology

The whole concept is that a number of vehicles using the road could be charged simultaneously and, thus, the present endurance limitations associated with battery-powered electric car technology could be exceeded.  Alternatively, the cars could be made more energy efficient by retaining their present range, but being able to achieve it with smaller batteries in place.

The strips, according to Cho, would typically be sited in bus lanes and motorway intersections – locations with slow moving traffic where vehicles could effectively receive energy.

Electrical Energy Transfer

Similar electrical energy transfer without direct contact is already use in current toothbrush technology, where toothbrushes sit in a cradle and energy is fed into them.

Physical trials of the South Korean vehicle charging technology are set to take place later in 2009, with a view to having it used across Seoul’s bus network, as well as those of other cities in South Korea.  A number of South Korean car manufacturers are also taking part.

While trams run on electric power lines, it is not necessary to keep a constant contact between vehicles like cars and buses and electric power strips.  Furthermore, the strips can be touched by human hands without the risk of a shock.  Indeed, according to Cho, trials carried out so far have shown no associated risk to either machines or humans.

As for cost, it has been estimated that over $300,000 dollars will be needed to equip a single kilometre of road with the technology, exclusive of electricity.