Electrize Motor City

For years upon years politicians, businessmen, and scientists alike have claimed that electric cars will be our future. But if the first electric car was produced in the 1890s, why are we still waiting for the future? The answer lies in the fact that there remains a hesitancy regarding the reliability of electric vehicles. A recent study conducted in the United Kingdom states that 37% of people are uncomfortable with the lack of charging stations in their community and 35% of people hold little faith in the range of electric vehicles. But maybe Detroit, the city that put the world on wheels, holds the key to the world’s electric future.

In September of 2021, the state of Michigan announced the first in-road charging system that will allow electric vehicles to charge both while in motion and while stationary. The one mile electric roadway will be developed by Electreon, an Isreali based company that works to revolutionize wireless charging of electric vehicles. It is expected for the road to be fully operational by 2023 and will be the first of its kind in the United States.

The pilot road will be built in Michigan’s innovation district Corktown (a neighborhood in Detroit). As one of the most up and coming neighborhoods in the country, the district is meant to be the breeding grounds for new innovations in transportation.

But how exactly would such a highway work?

The science behind it is actually quite simple. Electric fields will be generated by electric cables and electromagnetic transmitters that are buried beneath the road’s surface. The energy from the electric field will be picked up by coils inside the vehicle. This would create voltage that will be used to charge the vehicle’s battery and extend its mileage. However for natural gas vehicles, this road will behave as any other.

Electric roadways have the capability to take the question of range out of consumers’ minds. Paired with increasingly reliable battery technology, it is not unreasonable to say that electric roads hold the key to a future dominated by electric vehicles.

With the capability to cut fossil fuel emissions in half and lower the usage of natural resources, electric vehicles can blaze the trail towards a greener future. The shift towards electric vehicles is also expected to create close to 150,000 jobs by 2030 which would serve as a win for the American economy as well as American workers. And now with a possible solution towards their biggest pitfall, not much lies in the way for electric vehicles and Detroit to pave the way towards a greener future.