“When you can charge while driving, range anxiety and frequent charging stops will be a thing of the past,” said ENRX CEO Bjørn Eldar Petersen. That vision is about to get a real-world test in Central Florida, where State Road 516 will embed 200 kilowatts of wireless charging power directly into the asphalt for moving vehicles.
The pilot, part of a $500+ million expressway linking Lake and Orange counties, will have copper inductive coils installed underneath three-quarters of a mile of highway. Those coils create magnetic fields that transmit energy to receiver pads mounted under specially equipped EVs; the technology is similar in concept to wireless phone charging but scaled up. At highway speeds, the output of the system exceeds that of most fast-charging stations, possibly permitting vehicles to continue their journeys indefinitely without stopping.
The idea is not unique to Florida. Detroit’s quarter-mile wireless road has been powering compatible EVs since late 2023; in 2023, Purdue University demonstrated a 190 kW in-motion charge for a semi-truck at 65 mph. France turned on inductive charging for trucks on some highways, and Sweden, Germany, and France set ambitious targets for electrified road networks. All these projects are targeting the same basic problem: range anxiety and alternatives to oversized battery packs.
The Florida installation, led by Norwegian firm ENRX under a $13.6 million contract, will serve only vehicles so equipped with compatible receivers. That limitation points to a broader challenge: global interoperability standards are still in development by SAE International, and broad deployment will depend on automakers integrating the hardware in future models. Without such standards, each pilot risks becoming a regional one-off rather than part of a cohesive national network.
From an engineering perspective, high-power dynamic charging like Florida’s has some strong benefits compared to lower-power systems. Planning analyses for in-motion charging show that higher power reduces the proportion of road that must be electrified, which cuts construction and material costs. For example, using a 200 kW system allows actual significant energy over short segments, while achieving that same effect would require a great deal more coverage with a 35 kW system. However, high-power density components must be robust enough to handle sustained loads at highway speeds-a hurdle that still demands research.
Cost remains crucial. While Detroit’s pilot came in at about $2 million per mile, Florida’s special segment works out to roughly $18 million per mile when factoring in the broader expressway budget. But against the cost of placing fast-charging stations every 50 miles along main corridors, dynamic charging lanes might eventually be competitive, particularly if they can be installed during regular road maintenance, as infrastructure planners say. Smart deployment along high-traffic freight and commuter routes would maximize return on investment, with commercial fleets benefiting first from predictable usage patterns.
The operational models are also developing alongside the technology. Electreon, one of the pioneers in inductive road systems, has suggested subscription-based “Charging-as-a-Service” plans for transit operators, offering continuous charging for a monthly fee. Casual drivers could be served by pay-as-you-go systems, where access to dynamic charging would not require large upfront costs. In Sweden, it is estimated that targeted electrification of busy freight routes-for example, 155-186 miles-could reduce CO₂ emissions from trucks by over 200,000 tonnes per year, providing an excellent environmental rationale for selective deployment.
The Florida pilot also serves as a proving ground for real-world performance at sustained highway speeds. If successful, it could influence national policy and infrastructure investment aligned with federal programs on expanding EV-charging networks. A possible extension into wireless lanes may fall under the diversified charging ecosystem, meeting the Biden Administration’s goal of 500,000 publicly available chargers by 2030. For now, the technology’s reach will be limited to test vehicles, but the groundwork is being laid for a future where roads double as power networks. In that case, as Petersen’s remark touches upon, the psychological barrier of range anxiety could dissolve completely when charging becomes an effortless part of the drive itself.