Electric Cars: Gov Announces Wireless Charging Test In Detroit

If this works, it could be a game changer.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has announced the Michigan Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to build a first-in-the-U.S. wireless electric vehicle charging road system. Electreon has been selected to build this one-mile section of road in Detroit that will be a test for a public wireless in-road charging system. And the state expects this pilot test to be up and running by 2023 - next year.

WOOD-TV says "the roadway will be located in the Michigan Central district where Ford Motor Co. is restoring the old Michigan Central train station to develop self-driving vehicles."

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The question is no longer if electric cars will work or if the public will accept them, but when an infrastructure can be built to support the long and short distance needs of drivers. With General Motors having abandoned the Volt, which was an electric car equipped with an additional gas engine to take care of range anxiety, it appears the future of automotive is now all-electric. But there's a two-pronged problem: One is having having enough (or in some case, any, places to charge the vehicle, much like now people look for outlets to charge their phones. It isn't so much being able to charge an electric vehicle in a populated major city, but what if you and the family are headed up North in Michigan; it's getting charging stations in the areas in-between and more-so in the UP. And the other problem is all the people who live in apartments and condos where charging an electric vehicle at home right now is either simply impossible or not practical.

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