Infrastructure group Britpave believes that concrete roads that charge electric vehicles as they pass over the road’s surface could be the answer to the UK’s current EV adoption barrier.

Stressing that the issue of ‘range anxiety’ needs to be addressed before electric vehicles can truly be considered as the future for low or zero carbon transport, the organisation points to data from Emu Analytics that shows that there are only 16,500 charging points in the whole of the UK.

With one million new EVs estimated on UK roads within the next two years, Britpave says that there needs to be a network of 100,000 charging points. Currently, only three per cent of supermarkets have a charging point, with only 1,500 rapid chargers across the UK as a whole.

Joe Quirke, Britpave chairman, highlights a number of concrete eRoad options that are being researched and developed, including the ‘Inductive Charging’ project, led by Flanders Make, which tested the installation and use of inductive charging systems in concrete and asphalt roads. The research found that energy efficiencies of 90 per cent were achievable, only four per cent less than using a charging point, and it emphasised the importance of the road surface durability for the successful operation of the installed module. The findings of the research had been used for the construction of 200Kw bus charging stations in Bruges, Belgium, and Braunschwieg, Germany.

Durability and minimum maintenance are key for future eRoads. This is especially so as the vehicles, particular heavy goods vehicles, will be travelling on the same path in order to charge. Concrete roads have a performance life of 50-60 years and are so fully able to provide the required long-term durability. Therefore, the company argues, concrete eRoads should have a very significant role to play in helping deliver the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and the removal of reliance on fossil fuels.

Quirke said: “Faced with the lack of trust in manufacturer claims and the lack of an adequate charging network it is little wonder that ‘range anxiety’ is a barrier to more people buying EVs. A new approach is required and increasingly the potential of concrete ‘eRoads’ that inductively charge EVs as they travel are being examined.

“What is being underlined by the research is the need for the road surface to have long-term durability and minimum maintenance. Both are inherent characteristics of concrete roads. A further benefit of concrete roads for the installation wireless modules is that in hot summer temperatures they, unlike asphalt, do not melt. Such melting could dislodge and compromise the positioned embedded wireless system.”