Hutchinson joins first French EV charging road project

Beit Yanai, Israel – Hutchinson SA has been selected as part of a French-Israeli consortium to build France’s first wireless charging road for electric vehicles (EVs), the French group has announced.

Led by traffic information company Vinci Autoroutes and backed by Bpifrance bank, the project will use Israeli technology company Electreon's wireless electric road system (ERS) on a section of the A10 highway, southwest of Paris.

In a statement 12 July, Electreon said it will unveil its “next-generation product” with significantly increased power transfer capacity, additional software features such as real-time monitoring, and a more robust architecture; specifically designed for dense traffic corridors on public highways.

Electreon will deploy a 2km dynamic wireless charging road and a stationary wireless charging station in the project, which will support “all vehicle types and classes”.

Hutchinson will bring its technology to manufacture the inductive emitter segments that transmit power to the vehicle's receiver, said Hutchinson in a LinkedIn announcement.

The technology is being implemented as part of a process to “decarbonise” roads transportation through dynamic charging, allowing EVs to travel long distances without having to stop to recharge.

Another major benefit of the project will a “substantial reduction” of the battery size and associated raw materials.

The ultimate goal of the project is to deploy the ERS across all major French roadways to decarbonise passenger and freight transport, and the heavy-trucking industry in the country.

Citing a study by the French transportation ministry in 2021, Electreon said its ERS system, if deployed at large scales, could reduce CO2 emissions from road freight transport by 86% compared to diesel.

Without ERS, it added, electric heavy duty trucks would have to be equipped with “extremely large batteries and stop to charge at high-power charging stations”.

The study also proposes a plan to deploy ERS over nearly 5,000 km by 2030, and nearly 9,000 km by 2035, according to Electreon.

Hutchinson and the Israeli start-up Electreon entered a partnership in November 2021 to advance a new wireless battery charging system for electric vehicles.

Electreon provides a ‘shared energy platform’ which charges electric vehicles ‘on the go’ through a complete wireless electric road system.

The system involves under-road units of copper coils which transfer the energy from the electricity grid to the roads and approaching vehicles.

Hutchinson supplies ‘rubber-encapsulated’ inductive segments, which transfer the energy to the vehicle’s receiver.

Electreon’s technology was first installed in Tel Aviv and has now been employed in Karlsruhe, Germany; Lombardy, Italy and in Sweden.