This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate desk cooperation.
Blake Dollier spoke excitedly as he watched construction crews pulverize concrete along a quarter-mile stretch of US Highway 52, where it passes through West Lafayette, Indiana.
Soon, the Indiana Department of Transportation, or INDOT, where Dollier works as the public relations director, will install a series of copper coils beneath the highway’s surface to test a new technology developed by Purdue University researchers that harnesses power to electric vehicles can wirelessly provide as they drive by.
“Wouldn’t it really be something if we could just drive across the road and catch your load for your vehicle as you drive over it?” Dollier said in a phone interview, watching the progress from the parking lot of one of the department’s satellite offices in West Lafayette.
The state began construction on its new pilot project this month, and officials say they believe it could spur greater adoption of EVs and redefine the way people think about them. The project, they said, which is in partnership with Purdue and engine maker Cummins Inc. done, will be able to provide power to vehicles even when traveling at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour.
Ultimately, Purdue researchers and government officials hope the project will open EVs to a larger customer base, largely by reducing battery costs and allaying concerns about range anxiety — the fear that an electric vehicle will run out of juice before it reaches its destination. One in four American adults say they would seriously consider buying an EV for their next purchase, but more than half of those who don’t want to buy an electric vehicle blame range anxiety, according to a survey conducted by AAA last year.
Courtesy of Consensus Digital Media
While Indiana’s project wouldn’t be the first “dynamic EV charger” in the country — Detroit installed a similar pilot project on a residential road last fall — it would be the first time the technology has been installed on a highway.
If successful, the technology could also help electrify long-haul trucks, which are among the most difficult vehicles to decarbonize, said Nadia Gkritzaa civil engineering professor at Purdue University and the project’s principal investigator.
That’s because heavy-duty trucks will need significantly larger batteries because of their size, weight and the long distances they tend to travel, Gkritza said. However, she said, if they could receive power while driving, it would allow those vehicles to carry smaller batteries, lowering overall costs and reducing the number of stops to recharge.
“Really the possibilities are endless,” said INDOT’s Dollier. “And we’re just hopeful that this is something that can benefit a lot of people here in the state of Indiana and maybe even across the country going forward.”
INDOT says the pilot project should be completed by next summer, though private vehicles won’t be able to use it — at least not yet. Cars and trucks must be equipped with special receivers for wireless charging to work, which means current models are incompatible. The coils are installed underground and use magnetic fields to deliver the electricity wirelessly. Each coil activates only when a receiver is above it, Purdue researchers say, so the infrastructure won’t pose a threat to pedestrians, animals or other vehicles.
Kaylee Dann, executive director of Greater Indiana Clean Cities, a clean energy advocacy nonprofit not involved in the project, agrees that the new technology could spur greater EV adoption in Indiana and nationwide. In fact, she said, the project comes at a time when more and more Hoosiers are choosing to go electric.
While Indiana’s overall EV adoption rates still pale in comparison to California and other EV market leaders, the state saw an astounding 1,200 percent increase in registered electric vehicles between 2016 and 2022, according to a state report published last year. About 24,000 electric vehicles were registered in Indiana alone last year, according to the state’s Office of Energy Development.
Dann believes that leaning into EVs was a smart financial move by the state as the nation turns to cleaner transportation options. Two recent federal policies — the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the Environmental Protection Agency’s new tailpipe pollution standards, finalized last month – is expected to dramatically increase domestic production of EVs nationwide in the coming years.
Indiana is already experiencing some of that economic gain. According to a state report published last September, Indiana has received about $8.2 billion in investments related to EV production since 2021. These include a $3 billion investment by General Motors and Samsung to manufacture EV batteries in the city of New Carlisle and an $803 million investment by Toyota to expand its expansion. EV production in the city of Princeton.
“We’ve seen a lot of investment from manufacturers,” Dann said. “So we’re going to see a huge influx of EVs being manufactured in the state.”
But the biggest benefits to the state may be the environment.
In his annual Status of the air report, the American Lung Association ranked the Indianapolis metro area the 10th worst city in the country for year-round particulate pollution known as PM2.5. Regular exposure to PM2.5, which is produced anytime something burns, has been linked to increased health risks, including increased risk of asthma attacks, cardiovascular and lung disease and even premature death.
Because EVs draw power from batteries, not from burning fuel, their higher adoption will lead to better air quality for any state. Gkritza said reducing air pollution is one of the broader goals of Indiana’s pilot project. “Greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, it’s really bad about those freight corridors, transit corridors — we have communities that are negatively impacted by freight movement,” she said.
More EVs also mean fewer greenhouse gas emissions, Dann said, helping to slow climate change. Transportation is America’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPAaccounting for nearly a third of the country’s carbon footprint.
In Indiana alone, EVs are contributing 60 percent less carbon pollution than their fossil fuel counterparts, Dann said, despite the fact that the state’s electricity — the fuel for EVs — is produced primarily by coal-fired power plants. More than half of the state’s electricity in 2021 was generated by coal, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Having strong EV charging infrastructure in Indiana could be a boon statewide, given the state’s centralized location in the US
Indiana has more interstate highways going through it than any other state, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb said. A 2021 report. It’s also home to the nation’s second-largest FedEx hub and 41 freight railroads, he added, noting Indiana’s motto of being the “Crossroads of America.”
“Simply put,” Holcomb wrote, “the world moves through Indiana.”
