This street in LA will be the first in California to wirelessly charge EVs

In a few years, a new technology will be hidden under the street on UCLA’s campus: When one of the university’s electric buses drives down the street, chargers embedded under the asphalt will send it power wirelessly. The same will happen at certain bus stops.

The latest technology testing is in the early stages. In Detroit, a short stretch of road near the city began testing wireless charging technology last year. In Indiana, another pilot installed this year will soon begin testing high-speed EV charging on the highway. The project at UCLA will be the first in California.

As a research institution, UCLA is “committed to being a proving ground for new technologies,” said Clinton Bench, director of UCLA Fleet and Transit. The university is partnering with Electreon, a wireless charging company, and nonprofit Calstart, with funding from the state. As part of this plan, the school is also moving all buses to electric.

Being able to charge buses as they drive would help in many ways. Currently, the university’s electric buses charge when parked at night. But as the fleet continues to grow, adding charging infrastructure in one place is a challenge because of the energy demand, Bench said. Being able to charge throughout the day, in different places, will help. It also means that buses can continue to run longer each day, so passengers have better service.

Installing inductive charging can be cost-competitive with conventional EV chargers, Bench said, although the initial driver installation costs more. The basic process is very simple: if the road is to be resurfaced and the top layer is removed, small charging coils can be added and connected to the electricity. Then, in an electric car, a receptor is added that can communicate with the charging coils and absorb the energy.

The final design could be three-quarters of a mile long, with clusters of charging coils at certain points along the road. (Although the projected figures for the new project aren’t ready yet, driving through a kilometer-long charging technology area can typically add 10 miles of range to a car.) It could help make EVs work for transit agencies. “Today, many agencies are struggling to replace diesel buses – they need to have 1.5 or twice as many electric buses as diesel because of range limitations and they need to charge for them,” said Stefan Tongur, vice president of business development at Electreon. .

Finally, this type of system can be especially useful on highways, so vehicles like trucks can travel long distances without stopping and waiting to charge. It can also avoid the space requirements of conventional chargers in larger vehicles. “The amount of space you need to install fast chargers and a megawatt charger is huge,” Tongur said. “The communities don’t really like that, because it’s just a place for cars and it adds traffic and traffic. With wireless charging, you can limit the physical space, because everything is underground and you have no mechanical connection.”

And unlike chargers designed for one type of vehicle, wireless charging can easily be switched on for other modes of transportation. “It could be buses, but it could also be trucks, or it could be cars or vans,” he said. “So, with the same infrastructure investment, you can now get a charging platform.” The total cost is less than building chargers which are used very little.

Technology can influence the way cars are designed. A bus on a route with inductive charging can have a small battery. That means the vehicle can weigh less and cost less, as the battery is the most expensive part of an EV. It also helps reduce the environmental impact from making batteries. In a project using the technology in Sweden, a transport company was able to use a bus battery that was 90% smaller thanks to wireless charging.

The project at UCLA will go through the design and planning phase now, and will be completed before LA hosts the 2028 Olympics, when UCLA will host the Athletes’ Village. While the project is not part of the city’s official plans for the Games, it could help support the city’s larger goal of making the event car-free and carbon-free. And the impact will go further. “This is a permanent infrastructure that can support the electrification of other aircraft over time, not just sports,” Tongur said. “This will help California achieve its goals in terms of how many cars can be electrified.”