Volvo Group, one of the leading manufacturers in of trucks, buses, construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial application, also leading innovators in safety and fuel conservation solutions has come up with an idea which could be the first step towards 'Battery Free' vehicles.
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| Richard Sebestyen, leading member in Volvo's Research Team with the current collector connected to the rear of the test truck |
Volvo sees our future long-haul trucks and buses consuming energy they need from the road itself, making vehicles with large batteries look like dinosaurs of the past. In addition to this they are also making a considerable research in making their diesel engines more fuel efficient. As a member of a large research project, along with the Swedish Transport Administration, Vattenfall, Alstom, other vehicle manufacturers and suppliers, and several universities, the company is looking at ways to supply constant power to long-haul vehicles from an external source.
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| This technology has been put to test at a 400m test track in a facility near Gothenburg since last year. |
Volvo in collaboration with power generation and transport firm Alstorm has constructed a testing facility consisting of 400 meter(1,312 ft)- long track in
Hällered near Gothenburg to test a truck fitted with a collector drawing energy from rails installed on the surface of the road. This technology has been modified from one that is used in trams to supply electricity and could be the next big innovation in reducing the dependence on battery.
The setup consists of two power rails running along entire road length. One is the positive pole and the other is used to return the current. Volvo has also implemented some safety measures by sectioning the lines so that the live current can only be supplied to the collector mounted on the truck if appropriate signal is sensed by installing a radio emitter on the vehicle where if an electric vehicle passes a road segment with a proper encrypted signal, then the road will energize the segments that sense the vehicle which enables it move at a speed greater that 60 km/h.
Research and technical development of the setup is still going which once completed could be retrofitted in existing roads and replace the costlier Overhead Cable System and there is also a possibility of adapting this technology to deliver AC in future. Preliminary vehicles to use this technology will be hybrids rather than full EV to overcome the shortcoming of short power interruptions. Volvo is still reluctant to introduce this technology as of now but once introduced could be a game changer in EV Transport Sector.
