South Korea has rolled out the world’s first road-powered
electric vehicle network. The network consists of special roads that have
electrical cables buried just below the surface, which wirelessly transfer
energy to electric vehicles via magnetic resonance. Road-powered electric
vehicles are exciting because they only require small batteries, significantly
reducing their overall weight and thus their energy consumption. There’s also
the small fact that, with an electrified roadway, you never have to plug your
vehicle in to recharge it, removing most of the risk and range anxiety
associated with electric vehicles (EVs).
The network consists of 24 kilometers (15 miles) of road in
the city of Gumi, South Korea. For now, the only vehicles that can use the network
are two Online Electric Vehicles (OLEV) — public transport buses that run
between the train station and In-dong.
