Smartroad startup raises $50m
The Israeli smartroad company expects to complete a 25-30 km deployment that will charge heavy-duty trucks in Sweden by the end of the year. It is also developing a 10 km shared deployment for public transportation and other commercial users in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) system uses copper coils placed under the road at the centre of the traffic lane coupled with a receiver located under the vehicle chassis and a management and power unit that provides real-time communication with each vehicle and transmits the energy from the grid to the infrastructure under the road.
The charging technology in the smartroad allows lighter trucks and vehicles with smaller battery packs. This opens up “charge as a service” platform enabling cost effective electrification of commercial and autonomous fleets with minimal batteries and smooth and continuous operation. The Smartroad Gotland project, led by ElectReon AB, started in November to install the first section of the world’s first wireless electric road system (ERS) for trucks and buses on public roads.
“We are very excited to deploy our technology for a real world application for the first time after proving that it is fully functional in our test site. As part of the process we are also shifting to mass production of our coils on the way to full commercialization of our technology,” said Oren Ezer, CEO of ElectReon Wireless
The backing comes from some of Israel’s biggest institutional Investors including Migdal, Psagot, Mor, Excellence, and Halman Aldubi, and leading hedge funds Alpha, Safra and Sphera, as well as Afcon Holdings which is the biggest EV charging player in Israel.
The company also plans to establish a local presence in selected new markets such as Germany, Italy, France, California, India, and Latin America where it is currently developing additional projects.
The funds will also be used towards expanding the range of vehicles offered for dynamic wireless charging beyond buses and heavy duty trucks to shuttles, taxies, light trucks, vans and autonomous vehicles.
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“We thank our investors for showing confidence in the clean mobility segment as a global growth engine and in ElectReon’s solution as a platform that can bring the world closer to 100% clean transportation,” said Oren Ezer, CEO of ElectReon.
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