Wireless Charging Highway Opens in Sweden: Electric Vehicles Charging While Driving Becomes Reality

Sweden has inaugurated the world's first permanent wireless charging highway, a 21-kilometer stretch of the E20 motorway between Hallsberg and Örebro equipped with embedded inductive charging coils that deliver power to electric vehicles in motion.

The system, developed by Israeli-Swedish firm ElectReon in partnership with the Swedish Transport Administration, uses copper coils installed beneath the road surface connected to the electrical grid. A receiver pad mounted on the underside of compatible vehicles picks up the electromagnetic field and converts it to direct current, charging the battery at rates of up to 75 kW at highway speeds.

"The technology essentially turns the road into a charger," said Stefan Tongur, ElectReon's vice president of business development. "Vehicles can maintain charge or even gain range while driving, which eliminates range anxiety for long-distance travel."

Sweden selected the E20 corridor because it carries heavy freight traffic between Stockholm and Gothenburg. The initial deployment targets commercial trucks and buses, with several fleet operators participating in the first year, including logistics firm DB Schenker and public transit operator Nobina.

The system adds approximately €1 million per kilometer to road construction costs, a figure ElectReon says will drop to €600,000 per kilometer at scale. A cost-benefit analysis by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute found that wireless charging highways could reduce the required battery size in electric trucks by up to 60%, cutting vehicle purchase prices and reducing the weight penalty that limits payload capacity.

Sweden aims to electrify 2,000 kilometers of national highways by 2035 as part of its target to achieve net-zero transport emissions. Italy, Israel, and the United States have pilot projects underway, but Sweden's E20 installation is the first to operate continuously on a public motorway.

The European Commission has signaled interest in funding cross-border wireless charging corridors as part of its Trans-European Transport Network strategy.