First announced in 2023, works on a 1.5 km section of the A10 motorway to the south-west of Paris took place earlier this year.

This stretch of the motorway has seen hundreds of copper coils installed under the road surface. The coils can charge certain electric vehicles equipped with ‘receivers’ (récepteurs), as well as electric HGVs as they drive.

Four prototype vehicles (a HGV, bus, car, and a commercial véhicule utilitaire) are driving along the road to test its effectiveness.

“Deployed on a large scale, this solution would significantly reduce the size of vehicle batteries, thus improving the overall performance of heavy-duty electric mobility,” said Vinci in a press release.

Performance would be improved “both operationally (cheaper and lighter vehicles with improved fuel consumption and payload, elimination of charging downtime, etc.) and environmentally (reduced need for raw materials and the carbon footprint associated with battery manufacturing),” it added.

Zane Lilley