Improvements in vehicle design and battery technology mean that electric cars are able to charge faster and travel further than ever before.
Having the right charging infrastructure in place is still crucial, however, as we move towards a future in which fossil fuel-powered vehicles are phased out.
One option is placing wireless charging facilities under the roads, allowing us to charge our cars as we drive.
This is likely to be supplementary to at-home charging and dedicated charging stations rather than replacing them entirely, but could still have a major impact on how our future cities are designed, built and used.
A new study by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia has examined how wireless charging roads might affect city planning and driver behaviour moving forward.
Researcher Mustafa Kishk said that these wireless power systems are currently being developed around the world as a way of charging vehicles without the driver having to stop.
“In this context, there is a need to mathematically analyse the large-scale deployment of charging roads in metropolitan cities,” he said.
Some factors that needed to be taken into account include the density of roads, the start and end points of drivers’ journeys, and how likely they were to seek out charging roads during their commutes.
Statistical geometry was used to analyse the data
The researchers used a technique called ‘stochastic geometry’ to analyse and model the various metrics involved.
Applying the analysis to Manhattan in New York, which has a road density of one road every 63 metres, they found that a driver would have an 80% chance of hitting a charging road within 500 metres if charging facilities were installed beneath 20% of roads.
Kishk said that it was the first study of its type and provided an important step in understanding and deploying charging road infrastructure in metropolitan urban areas.
Such systems have been tested in different places around the world, including a £400,000 dynamic wireless charging (DWC) system set to be tested in Coventry.
The ‘DynaCov’ project will see electric coils embedded beneath selected sections of roads.
The coils, which are connected to a mains supply, then wirelessly transmit power to a receiver in the vehicle.
This is then passed to the vehicle’s battery, allowing for constant charging and increased range, without having to stop at a charging station.
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