We have been waiting for several years - and in 2020 it finally happened! During spring, the electric road known as Evolution road was attached to Getingevägen, and in November the first test ride was made with a bus that charges via the rail. Lund's electric road has also been met with interest from the government - Minister of Energy and Digitization Anders Ygeman was present digitally at the inauguration, while Minister of Infrastructure Tomas Eneroth paid a visit to the electric road during autumn.
Just over six years ago, the innovator Dan Zethraeus at Elonroad presented the idea of an electric road that can charge vehicles on the go for Future by Lund. Thus, Future by Lund was involved in the early phase of the electric road project during its formation and when the application was about to be written.
A lot has happened since then. The application was approved by the Swedish Transport Administration, and the project is now run by Per Löfberg and Innovation Skåne. Karin Ebbinghaus is the new CEO at Elonroad, and the rails for the road are manufactured at the company's premises in southern Lund.
– We have gone from innovation to implementation. Full focus has been on getting processes and production in place and getting ready to take the next step, to build electric roads in full scale, says Karin Ebbinghaus.
On the south side of Getingevägen, there is already a 500 meter electric road and in early 2021 the northern side will also have a rail that instead of being attached directly to the asphalt will be milled down so that it ends up level with the road surface. The power supply is provided by Kraftringen and the municipality of Lund leases the affected part of Getingevägen for the test operation by extending the existing bus lane.
– I am convinced electric roads will become a reality - we have an exciting time ahead of us and an entirely new picture of future mobility is beginning to emerge, says project manager Per Löfberg at Innovation Skåne.
The electric road is being commissioned by the Swedish Transport Administration and the project is one of four technical tests of electric roads that are carried out in different places in Sweden.
More about the electric road
* The test project will run until 2022.
* The technology being tested in Lund is based on a conductive solution and has been developed by Lund company Elonroad in collaboration with The Faculty of Engineering at Lund University. This is one out of four electric road technologies that are being tested around Sweden on behalf of the Swedish Transport Administration. The other projects are carried out on Gotland, in Gävleborg and outside Arlanda.
* Behind the investment is a southern Swedish consortium, Evolution Road, which is supported and financed by the Swedish Transport Administration. The aim is to test and generate more knowledge about electric roads for two years, a climate-smart technology that makes it possible for electric vehicles to be charged from the road while driving.
The project is enabled through a collaboration between nine partners: Elonroad AB, Innovation Skåne AB, Kraftringen Energi AB, Lund municipality, The Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, Ramboll, Skånetrafiken, Solaris Sverige AB and the Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI.
* In accordance with Sweden's climate goals, the greenhouse gas emissions from the Swedish transport sector should be reduced by 70 percent by 2030, and an important part of achieving this may be to electrify road transportation. The test projects of electric roads that are currently underway in Sweden are a first step in creating a charging infrastructure that enables the shift to an electrified and fossil-free vehicle fleet with reduced emissions. The Swedish Transport Administration is the main financier and has invested SEK 84 million in the investment in Skåne, out of a total of SEK 96 million, to generate more knowledge about the technology, while also gaining insights about the operation, maintenance and environmental effects.
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