Michigan to build America's first wireless electric vehicle charging road

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By Matthew Griffin Earth and Energy 21st November 2021

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

In the future EV’s will be wirelessly charged, and might not even need batteries.

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Michigan was one of the first states to approve the use of self-driving vehicles on its public roads, and now they’ve planning to build the first public road in the US where electric vehicles can charge wirelessly while driving, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced Tuesday at the Motor Bella auto show in Pontiac.

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“Michigan was home to the first mile of paved road, and now we’re paving the way for the roads of tomorrow with innovative infrastructure that will support the economy and the environment, helping us achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050,” Whitmer said in a statement.

Next week, the state Department of Transportation will issue a formal request for proposals to design, test, and implement wireless charging infrastructure on one mile of road in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb counties. It’s not yet clear how the Inductive Vehicle Charging Pilot would operate or when it would be unveiled.

Meanwhile, elsewhere a research project in Indiana will use magnetizable concrete to allow wireless charging on a quarter-mile stretch of private road. Coils embedded in the road will convey electricity to cars outfitted with coils of their own, operating much like the wireless charging pads used to juice up smartphones. Wireless charging technology has also already been tested in France, Sweden, and elsewhere. When scaled up, it could accelerate EV adoption by making it easier for drivers to recharge – as well as in time eliminating the need to charge and plug into supercharger networks forever.

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The Indiana project will begin testing on a public road in one to two years, Scott Manning, an Indiana Department of Transportation spokesperson, told the Detroit Free Press. The Michigan proposal will begin with the public road phase.

“We’re in the midst of the most significant shift in the automotive industry since the Model T rolled off the assembly line more than a century ago,” Trevor Pawl, Chief Mobility Officer with Michigan’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, said in a statement. “This electrified roadway has the potential to accelerate autonomous vehicles at scale and turn our streets into safe, sustainable, accessible and shared transportation platforms.”

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.