Smart Road Gotland consortium has been awarded a contract by the Swedish Transport Administration (STA or Trafikverket) to build a dynamic inductive-charging electric road system in the country.

The next phase of the $12.5m project will be led by Electreon, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Israeli company Electreon Wireless.

The project will demonstrate the future potential of dynamic wireless power transfer to vehicles.

Based on Electreon’s leading technology, the project will be developed under a public-private initiative. The project will be the first in the world to charge inductively both an electric truck and a bus on-the-go.

The project includes the construction of a 1.6km electric road on the Swedish island of Gotland, which forms part of a 4.1km stretch that connects Visby Airport to the city centre.

The Smart Road Gotland consortium will deploy a fully functional public shuttle service and testbed through a 1.6km-long electric road to ensure knowledge transfer to the STA.

“We believe that electric roads are an important contribution to reducing CO2 emissions from heavy transportation.”

The electric truck will be test-driven by a professional in different seasonal conditions to ensure that the system is ready for large-scale projects on highways.

Following relevant demonstration results from the project, the STA will evaluate the project for large-scale electric road investments.

STA programme manager Jan Pettersson said: “We, the Swedish Transport Administration, believe that electric roads are an important contribution to reducing CO2 emissions from heavy transportation.

“Demonstrating and evaluating new technical solutions for electric routes is one of our most important steps in our long-term plan for a potential roll-out of electrified routes on the heavy road network in Sweden.”

The project forms a key part of the Swedish Government’s $3bn plan to implement nearly 2,000km of electric highway in the country.

Electreon said that the new technology will be beneficial for long-haul, heavy trucks as they need not carry heavy batteries or stop for charging.