Swedish Transport Administration electric road program
The Swedish Transport Administration electric road program or Swedish Transport Administration Electrification Program is a program involving the assessment, planning, and implementation of an electric road national infrastructure for Sweden by Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration.
The fact-finding program began in 2012 and assessments of various electric road technologies in Sweden began in 2013. The final report was published in December 2024. It recommended against a national electric road network in Sweden as it would not be cost-effective, and the project was paused.
Technology
lists three power delivery types for dynamic charging, or charging while the vehicle is in motion: overhead power lines, ground level power through in-road or on-road rail, and wireless inductive charging. Overhead power was most technologically mature solution which provided the highest levels of power at the time of the 2018 report, but the technology is unsuitable for non-commercial vehicles. Ground-level power is suitable for all vehicles, with rail being a mature solution with high transfer of power and easily accessible and inspected elements. Inductive charging delivers the least power and requires more roadside equipment than the alternatives. By the late 2010s, infrastructure costs of ground-level rail became lower than overhead lines.Standardization
, Elonroad, and other companies have, in 2020, begun drafting a standard for ground-level power supply electric roads. The European Commission published in 2021 a request for regulation and standardization of electric road systems. Shortly afterward, a working group of the French Ministry of Ecology recommended adopting a European electric road standard formulated with Sweden, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and others, while leaning toward rail ERS, though the specific rail technology has yet to be standardized.The Swedish government charged Trafikverket with taking concrete measures on the Sweden-Germany-France cooperation regarding electric roads, and publish annual reports in October 2022, 2023, and 2024, and a final report in October 2025. A report by Research Institutes of Sweden recommends that Stockholm County choose the stationary and dynamic charging standards selected by Trafikverket. RISE recommends intra-city dynamic charging infrastructure capable of at least 20 kW so vehicles can gain range while driving on the electric road, for driving on peripheral roads and inter-city infrastructure capable of 300 kW or more for best cost-effectiveness. The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute similarly recommends a system capable of delivering 300 kW per truck. The French Ministry of Ecology working group recommends 400 kW for 44-ton trucks driving at 90 kilometers per hour along a 2% grade, or at minimum 250 kW so the truck can charge along flat or gently-sloping roads.
The final report of the second Swedish-German research collaboration on electric road systems, CollERS 2, advised Trafikverket to select a single ERS technology, suitable for heavy trucks, with several suppliers who use an existing standard, coordinated with German and French ERS decisions, not necessarily led by the European Union but with their coordination, utilizing an ERS-technology-neutral payment system. In 2024 the CollERS project was renewed and extended to include France.
Publication
A standard for electrical equipment on-board a vehicle powered by a rail electric road system, CENELEC Technical Standard 50717, has been published in late 2022. A standard encompassing full interoperability and a "unified and interoperable solution" for ground-level power supply electric road systems, detailing complete specifications for "communication and power supply through conductive rails embedded in the road" is specified in CENELEC technical standard 50740 in accordance with European Union directive 2023/1804. The standard was approved in early 2025 and is scheduled to be published in July 2025.Assessment
Assessments of various electric road technologies began in 2013. Initially the Swedish Transport Administration had expected to finish the program's assessment phase by 2022, then begin formulation of the national electric road network the same year, and finish its planning by 2033. The schedule was accelerated in October 2020, when the Swedish government charged a commission with investigating the standardization, construction, operation, maintenance and financing of electric roads in Sweden. A report generated by TRL in association with the Swedish Transport Administration listed available electric road systems, of which KAIST OLEV, Siemens eHighway, Elways, Elonroad, Bombardier PRIMOVE, and Electreon were estimated to be the most commercial-ready, with OLEV and eHighway already possessing a complete system in 2018. After further investigation the readiness level assessments of OLEV and Electreon were lowered. An interim report summarizing the assessment phase was published in February 2021, and a preliminary report on the standardization, construction, operation, maintenance and financing of electric roads was submitted September 2021.Assessed technologies
The first permanent electric road in Sweden was as of 2023 planned to be built on a section of the E20 route between Hallsberg and Örebro. The E20 project was funded at 500-600 million SEK, or about 24-29 million SEK per two lane-kilometers. The procurement process was cancelled as the submitted offers by Electreon and Elonroad exceeded the project's budget. The procurement process was expected to begin again by the end of 2025, but the project's final report submitted in December 2024 recommended against a national electric road network in Sweden as it would not be cost-effective, and the project was paused.Siemens
Overhead power lines were first tested through the program, using Siemens eHighway technology. The system was inaugurated in June 2016 in Sandviken municipality near Gävle in central Sweden. A 2-kilometre stretch of the E16 motorway was fitted with trolley wires 5.4 metres above its surface, which supply power at 750 volts DC. Trolleytrucks can connect the power pickups, mounted on mechanical arms or trolley poles, while driving under the wires. The trolley poles allow for a degree of lateral movement, but if the lorry is steered into the outside lane, the trolley poles are lowered automatically and the lorry switches to battery or diesel power. The system as tested is capable of delivering 500 kW of power and has an estimated maintenance period of 20 years.Elways-Evias
Ground-level conductive rails were tested from 2017 to 2019, using technology by the company Elways. A 2-kilometre stretch of the 893 road between Arlanda airport cargo terminal and the Rosersberg logistics area was fitted with embedded conductor rails as part of the eRoadArlanda project. Short sections of the rails are energized as a compatible vehicle approaches and they are disconnected once the vehicle has passed. The system measures the energy consumed, so that the vehicle owner can be billed. Buses and trucks were tested on the road, and the system is suited for electric cars, and is safe to touch even when the road is flooded with salt water. "There is no electricity on the surface. There are two tracks, just like an outlet in the wall. Five or six centimetres down is where the electricity is." The system as tested is capable of delivering 200 kW of power and has an estimated maintenance period of 20 years. Evias, which commercializes the technology by Elways, reports that in a pilot with Budpartner initiated in 2021 the infrastructure successfully delivered 960 kW of power, and hopes to deliver megawatts of power for logistics loading docks and electric aircraft in the future.Electreon
Trafikverket assessed a wireless electric road system with inductive coils using technology by Electreon, an Israeli startup. Testing was scheduled to begin in 2020. The system is made of short sections containing copper coils that energize when a vehicle is driving over them and switch off when it's passed, and it supports power metering and a billing for the energy consumed. The system is estimated to have a maintenance period of 5 years for roadside equipment and about 10 years for in-road equipment.Electreon first tested receivers nominally capable of up to 25 kW, installing three 25 kW receivers on an electric bus, and subsequently five 20 kW receivers on an electric truck that achieved an average transfer rate of 14 kW per receiver. The pilot was scheduled to conclude in March 2022, however Electreon has requested an extension for another year so it can test receivers nominally capable of 30 kW. Testing has been extended in late 2022 by another two years to assess seasonal damage and maintenance.
The German Ministry of Economy, BMWK, tested infrastructure by Electreon in 2023 with a bus equipped with inductive coils that receive power from a 200-meter strip of transmitters under the road surface. The receivers were able to collect 64.3% of the power emitted from the transmitters. Installation proved complex and costly, and finding suitable locations for the coils' roadside power cabinets proved difficult. The Coventry University dynamic charging project DynaCoV found wireless electric roads financially infeasible, using itemized costs provided in 2021 by Electreon.