Pioneering Project: First U.S. Highway Segment to Offer Electric Vehicle Charging While Driving

At the “Crossroads of America,” Purdue University engineers and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) are working to make it possible for electric vehicles ranging from tractor-trailers to passenger cars to wirelessly charge while driving on highways.

Construction is in progress on a quarter-mile test bed on U.S. Highway 231/U.S. Highway 52 in West Lafayette that the team will use for testing how well a patent-pending system designed by Purdue engineers can provide power to a heavy-duty electric truck traveling at highway speeds.

“Thanks once again to some engineers and pioneers from Purdue, we’re developing the world’s first highway test bed for wireless charging,” said Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to attendees of COP27, a United Nations environmental conference that took place in Egypt in 2022. “Please remember that one. Yes, we will be testing whether concrete can charge passing trucks — and don’t bet against a Purdue Boilermaker.”

Construction of the test bed, which began April 1, is expected to continue through the fall. An electric truck provided by Indiana-based company Cummins Inc. will drive over the test bed as part of a pilot program planned to start next year. The hope is to electrify a section of an Indiana interstate in the next four to five years.