Wireless charging systems for light and heavy electric vehicles: an interesting test in Indiana, U.S.
The electric truck, provided by Columbus-based company Cummins, will drive over the test bed as part of a pilot program tentatively planned to start next year. The hope is to electrify a section of an Indiana interstate in the next four to five years.
Purdue University engineers and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) are working jointly to develop wireless charging systems addressed to light electric vehicles, as well as zero emission heavy trucks. The target is to charge those vehicles while they drive.
Construction work began at the beginning of April on a quarter-mile test bed of U.S. Highway 231/U.S. Highway 52 in West Lafayette that the team will use for testing how well a patent-pending system designed by Purdue engineers can provide power to a heavy-duty electric truck traveling at highway speeds.
Indiana is for wireless charging systems
The electric truck, provided by Columbus-based company Cummins, will drive over the test bed as part of a pilot program tentatively planned to start next year. The hope is to electrify a section of an Indiana interstate in the next four to five years.
“Thanks once again to some engineers and pioneers from Purdue, we’re developing the world’s first highway test bed for wireless charging,” said Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to attendees of COP27, a United Nations environmental conference that took place in Egypt in 2022. “We will be testing whether concrete can charge passing trucks – and don’t bet against a Purdue Boilermaker.”
