Purdue’s Innovative Charging Method
Purdue University has made significant progress in a groundbreaking approach to charging electric heavy-duty trucks directly from the roadway.
The university recently announced a successful trial where they wirelessly charged an electric heavy-duty truck while it was traveling at highway speeds on a quarter-mile section of U.S. Highway 52/U.S. Highway 231 in Indiana.
This technique, known as “dynamic wireless power transfer,” involves Purdue engineers embedding transmitter coils within the concrete pavement, which supply energy to receiver coils mounted on the truck’s undercarriage.
Similar wireless charging technology is already being used for smartphones and various electric vehicles (EVs). For instance, the Michigan Department of Transportation reported two years ago that they had constructed the first public wireless EV charging road in the U.S., also spanning a quarter-mile in Detroit.
The Indiana Department of Transportation installed Purdue’s patent-pending charging system, with a prototype Class 8 electric truck provided by Cummins. John Kresse, chief technology engineer at Cummins, stated that this technology, with its high power and promising cost structure, could be a transformative solution for future on-highway commercial transportation.
While this method of charging EVs has been explored in other regions, applying it to highways for heavy trucks—a sector that demands more energy at higher speeds—marks a new frontier. The powerful coils developed by Purdue allow for a single receiver coil assembly on a truck, as opposed to using multiple lower-power coils.
Purdue engineers successfully transmitted 190 kilowatts to the truck at a speed of 65 mph. This approach could enable electric heavy-duty trucks to utilize smaller batteries, thus increasing cargo capacity per trip and significantly reducing overall EV trucking costs. Such advancements may also attract more investment in this technology and potentially benefit both electric passenger vehicles and trucks.
This trial is part of an ongoing research collaboration between Purdue and INDOT that commenced in 2018, with partial funding from INDOT via the university’s Joint Transportation Research Program. The initiative is also supported by the Advancing Self-Sufficiency through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center involved in various wireless charging projects. Collaborating partners include AECOM, White Construction Inc., and PC Krause and Associates Inc.
Future plans for the technology involve continued testing with different vehicle types, including light-duty passenger cars and trucks, to promote adoption, investment, and standardization in the industry.
