A roadway designed to charge electric semi-trucks as they drive is set to undergo testing in Indiana.
The "Electrified Roadway" project, initiated in 2019 by Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), involves installing electric coils beneath the pavement of US 231 in West Lafayette, Indiana. Crews are currently repaving the areas where the coils were installed.
The project aims to charge fully loaded commercial vehicles traveling at 65 mph using a magnetic field to transfer energy from the coils to a receiver on the semi-truck.
The roadway will reopen to all traffic in the coming months, with testing of the technology using electric semi-trucks scheduled to begin in the spring. "What was science fiction 20 years ago is present now," Pekarek noted.