There is also a bit of Italy in one of the hundred inventions of 2021 lined up in the classification by categories drawn up by the weekly Time. It is that of the Israeli company ElectReon which has developed an induction charging system for electric vehicles.
To describe the system is very simple: vehicles (private cars, public transport, trucks) are recharged while traveling. Or even standing still, as long as in special areas wired with the system designed by the startup. Yes, because roads and any parking lots must include a circuit installed under the asphalt, fed at regular distances through connection columns. The energy necessary for the vehicles to travel and recharge therefore arrives by induction, without a direct connection.
The first steps with his invention ElectReon obviously took them in Israel, in particular in Tel Aviv where he experimented with a stretch of several hundred meters and dedicated to public transport and a few weeks ago the company signed a contract for 9.4 Millions of dollars.
It’s Italy? The ElectReon idea did not remain confined to the Jewish state for long. Trials on road sections are in fact underway in Sweden, Germany and also in Italy. Brebemi, the motorway company that manages the section of the A35 between Brescia, Bergamo and Milan (parallel and alternative to the A4), signed a partnership to verify the feasibility of the system. Here, the so-called “Arena of the future” was set up, a ring of about one kilometer, to carry out field trials in partnership with Stellantis, Iveco, Abb, Mapei, Tim, Prysmian, Fiamm and Pizzarotti.
The principle reproduced alongside the Brebemi is similar to the one we often use by wirelessly recharging smartphones or tablets: the coils of conductive material installed under the asphalt of the roadway transfer energy through the electric fields generated.