Electric cars charge while driving: A tour on the A6 motorway for charging

In Bavaria, electric cars will soon be able to charge while driving – without cables or charging breaks. This will be achieved using electromagnetic coils integrated directly into the road surface. A test track approximately one kilometer long is being built on the A6 in Upper Palatinate, between Amberg-West and Sulzbach-Rosenberg.

The technology is based on the principle of inductive charging – comparable to wireless smartphone charging stations. However, in electric cars on the highway, this naturally occurs on a much larger scale. Copper coils are hidden beneath the road surface, which, in turn, generate a magnetic field using electric current. The magnetic field is picked up by special receiver coils in the test vehicles, converted into electricity, and used either directly for propulsion or to charge the battery.

Charging is designed to work even with an air gap of several centimeters between the car and the road. The actual charging infrastructure, including the copper coils, is now being installed as part of the regular road rehabilitation on a 5.7-kilometer-long section near the Oberpfälzer Alb Nord rest area in the direction of Nuremberg.

Use of the test track will likely initially be limited to specially equipped test vehicles, as no production electric car yet has the necessary reception technology. However, the first road tests are scheduled to begin in late July or early August 2025. The goal is to collect scientific data on the system's efficiency and installation effort. Questions of economic viability and scalability are also in focus.

The technology, by the way, comes from ElectReon, an international specialist in electric road systems (ERS), which is driving similar projects worldwide. The system has already been tested in Germany in cities such as Karlsruhe and Balingen – although not yet on a motorway. The A6 section in Upper Palatinate will thus be a nationwide premiere in the highway sector.

The inductive highway is being implemented by a consortium of universities, companies, and public institutions – including the FAPS Institute at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), the ELSYS Institute at Nuremberg Technical University, and several technology companies. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and Deutsche Autobahn GmbH, among others.

At the same time, the Free State of Bavaria is continuing to push research into contactless charging: A new E-Road Center of the Fraunhofer Institute IISB was recently opened in Hallstadt near Bamberg. The center will receive €7.5 million in funding from the state government until at least 2027 and is intended to become a leading center for inductive charging technologies in the long term. If the system proves successful on the highway, it could make a decisive contribution to the nationwide expansion of such a charging infrastructure.