Having a sustainable fleet is often seen as a contradictory topic in view of the fact that driving itself mainly relies on fossil fuel, and the use of electric and hybrid vehicles is still not widespread.
Today a new scenario opens up with the news in the last days of the inauguration of what is called “the world’s first electric road” in Sweden, which is currently undergoing testing.
The “electric road”—a strip the length of 2 kilometres close to the city of Gävle—is the result of the collaboration between the Swedish government and the private sector, represented by Scania, whose trucks are testing the road, and Siemens, who provided the engineering.
The technology allows hybrid vehicles to work as electric vehicles when on the electric road and like fuel-powered vehicles for the rest of the time. The Scania trucks involved in the testing are all hybrid and running on biofuel. At the back of the truck there is a pantograph collector that takes the power from the electrified road and automatically disconnects once off the electric-powered lane.
Photo Credit: © Scania
Sweden is also testing another type of electric road which utilises an embedded rail positioned in the road surface and works by energizing vehicles passing over it.
The testing of both will take place over the next two years. Sweden’s aim is to create a completely fossil-free energy-efficient fleet by 2030.