The idea sounds very alluring: What if as you are driving your electric car, the road itself could charge your vehicle, thereby extending the time between stops at charging stations?
That concept will soon be put to the test on the UCLA campus, thanks to a nearly $20 million grant last month from a state transportation agency to UCLA, Pasadena nonprofit Calstart and Israeli wireless road charging company Electreon.
A major part of that grant money will go towards developing California’s first in-road electric charging system, a test project on the UCLA campus that would use inductive coils in a roadbed to wirelessly provide charge to the batteries of electric-powered UCLA BruinBus vehicles.
The remainder of the grant money will go toward adding eight electric buses to the five existing electric buses in the BruinBus fleet and developing a stop for BruinBus near the Metro D Line Extension station at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. That Metro station, which is about 3/4 mile south of the UCLA campus, is currently slated to open in 2027.
This notion of wireless road charging has been around for years, but only recently has it been tested in actual use. The first wireless road charging segment in the nation opened in November of last year on a quarter-mile length of road in Detroit. A series of rubber-coated copper induction coils have been placed in the roadbed. When activated by a vehicle carrying a special transponder, the coils can wirelessly transfer electricity to the vehicle. In one test run, the system transferred 16 kilowatts of electricity to the vehicle.
Electreon, the wireless roadbed charging company based in Beit Yanai, north of the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv, has been a partner in the Michigan project.
At UCLA, thanks to the $19.9 million grant from the California State Transportation Agency’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, inductive charging coils will be installed below the road along transit routes on Charles E. Young Dr., between the Westwood Plaza intersection and Murphy Hall. Additionally, static wireless charging will be deployed at passenger pick-up and drop-off locations and transit depots, including the new UCLA transit hub near the Metro station, to charge while vehicles are stopped.
The target date for these projects is in time for the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The UCLA campus will host the main Athletes’ Village for those Games, requiring extensive use of buses to transport the athletes to events and ceremonies.
“By integrating advanced charging technology into the UCLA transit system, we are setting a precedent for the entire state,” said Jared Schnader, senior director and bus initiative lead with Calstart, the nonprofit dedicated to accelerating clean transportation. “If adopted widely, this innovation could revolutionize transit electrification, enhancing efficiency and sustainability across California’s transportation infrastructure,” Schnader added.
One of the key challenges is making sure the wireless induction coils are only activated when electric vehicles pass over them. In the Detroit test project, that’s being accomplished with a transponder placed aboard the designated vehicles.
Another challenge to widespread adoption is overcoming the speed hurdle. In the test project in Detroit, a van was clocked at 9 miles per hour as it traversed the quarter-mile of roadbed laced with the induction coils. If vehicles are traveling at normal driving speeds of 30 to 35 miles per hour, it will take miles of coil-laced roadbed to generate enough charge to provide a significant boost to the vehicle’s battery.
