Engineers at Purdue University have demonstrated wireless charging of an electric heavy-duty truck traveling at highway speeds for the first time in the United States. 

“With this breakthrough system, Purdue has shown that powering large commercial vehicles wirelessly is not just technically feasible but could be a practical and scalable solution for real-world highway transportation,” said Nadia Gkritza, a Purdue professor.

The quarter-mile experimental highway segment built by the Indiana Department of Transportation is on U.S. Highway 52/U.S. Highway 231 in West Lafayette. 

The system demonstrates “dynamic wireless power transfer,” or charging vehicles in motion. The wireless charging system delivered 190 kilowatts to a truck traveling at 65 mph. “To put that in perspective, 200 kilowatts are on the scale of about a hundred homes,” said Steve Pekarek, a Purdue professor. 

By accommodating the higher power demands of heavy-duty vehicles, the Purdue design supports the lower power needs of other vehicles. “This is a system designed to work for the heaviest class of trucks all the way down to passenger vehicles,” said Aaron Brovont, a research assistant professor.

The system allows highway pavement to provide power to EVs, similarly to how smartphones use magnetic fields to charge when placed on a pad wirelessly.

Cummins Inc. provided a prototype Class 8 battery-electric truck for the project. 

“The on-road testing went exceptionally well, thanks to strong collaboration between our teams. With its high power and promising cost structure, this technology represents a practical, and potentially game-changing, solution for the future of on-highway commercial transportation,” said John Kresse, chief technology engineer at Cummins. 

The project is part of a multiyear collaboration between Purdue and INDOT. They are now contributing to a larger effort to develop industry standards for dynamic wireless charging.