Honda Develops Tech Where the Road Powers Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles are excellent, of course, but battery life and the long charging breaks that go with it can be a real pain. Honda is looking at Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) as a solution to that problem. The concept is to charge the EV as it’s being driven, so you don’t have to plug in constantly.

The setup uses transmitter units in the road and receiver units on the vehicle. Power is transferred wirelessly via a magnetic field, so the car draws power directly from the grid rather than relying on a huge battery.

Smarter Tech Under the Hood and Road

Honda is using the ‘magnetic coupling’ method, which is essentially like a wireless charging pad for your smartphone. Coils in the road and in the vehicle resonate at the same frequency, transferring power across the gap.

Honda designed these components to produce up to 150kW without taking up any interior space. The vehicle receiver is small enough to carry in your hand, and you can fit up to four of them in a vehicle, depending on the vehicle’s size.

Additionally, each underground transmitter has its own inverter, and they’re all connected via a simple DC distribution line. That eliminates the need for all that messy wiring and means you don’t have to dig a very deep trench to lay it.

Hitting the Highways

Honda is testing the system in conjunction with Taisei Group to verify that the roads are both durable and quick to construct. The first public road trials are scheduled for the Tateyama Expressway in Chiba, Japan, in FY2027. The initial application will be for heavy commercial vehicles that are on the move all the time and don’t have the luxury of stopping to charge.

As Honda is working on international standards, other makes will eventually be able to use those roads too.