SWEDEN: The Solaris Sverige subsidiary of Solaris Bus & Coach is supplying a trolleybus for the EVolution Road R&D project that aims to test dynamic electric vehicle charging.
Evolution Road is led by Elonroad and the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Lund. Other partners are the Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute, Lund municipality, Innovation Skåne, Kraftringen Energi, Ramboll and Skånetrafiken.
A 1 km section of road in Lund is to be fitted with embedded rails that supply power to charge traction batteries in electric vehicles. Each of the 1 m long conductive segments will be live only when a vehicle is passing over it, with vehicle-to-road wireless communication being used to identify vehicles as they approach. Charging can occur when the vehicle is moving or when it is static.
Solaris will supply a modified Trollino battery trolleybus with an underfloor current collector. The manufacturer says that this method of charging would enable vehicles to be fitted with smaller traction batteries.
Swedish transport administration Trafikverket is the main investor in the €9m three-year project. Construction of the test track is due to begin in the first quarter of 2020.
