Stellantis is celebrating the opening of the “Arena del Futuro,” a small testbed for the highway of the future. Built in Italy, with a number of partners, the driving circuit seeks to test wireless inductive highway charging.
The inauguration of the 1.05 km (0.65-mile) long circuit marks the beginning of the third phase in the project. Located just off the A35 autostrada, which links Milan and Brescia, Italy, the “Arena del Futuro” is powered by 1 MW of power.
The circuit is designed to look just like a normal highway but it contains wires within the tarmac. Electricity from these can be collected by a vehicle via a special receiver. Doing this, a vehicle can be charged as it moves, making range anxiety (at least on these sections of highway) a thing of the past.
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Stellantis also points to the advanced connectivity being built into the Arena del Futuro as contributing to road safety. By being in constant dialog with the road and the vehicles traveling along it, the highway can become part of the internet of things.
“This is a cutting-edge solution to provide a concrete answer to the issues of range and charging, both of which customers are concerned about,” said Anne-Lise Richard, head of global e-mobility business at Stellantis. “Charging vehicles while they are on the move provides clear advantages in terms of charging times and the size of their batteries.”
The Arena del Futuro is using a new Fiat 500 and Iveco E-Way bus with special receivers built in to test the highway. The vehicles have already clocked many miles on the road and Stellantis says the results are encouraging so far.
The location will also be used to test the actual road and ensure that the tarmac used to create it is as durable as possible without interfering with the effectiveness of the inductive charging.