California's first wireless charging road is coming to UCLA. Here's how it'll work

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As part of an almost $20 million grant, UCLA will install the state's first electric charging roadway that will allow its BruinBus fleet to charge on the go.

California's first wireless charging road is coming to UCLA. Here's how it'll work

As part of an almost $20 million grant, UCLA will install the state's first electric charging roadway that will allow its BruinBus fleet to charge on the go.

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Students shuttling to class at UCLA’s Westwood campus may soon be doing so on a wireless EV-charging road. The charging road is the first of its kind in California and is anticipated to be up and running in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The roadway is part of an almost $20 million grant the university received for new electric transit projects, including eight new electric buses and a transportation hub that will connect to L.A. Metro’s D Line.

UCLA will complete these projects in collaboration with the clean transportation nonprofit CALSTART and wireless charging provider Electreon.

How the road works

Wireless charging roads work similarly to a wireless phone charger, said Clinton Bench, director of UCLA Fleet and Transit. Bench spoke about the new charging road on LAist 89.3's daily radio show, AirTalk.

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“So the way it works with a bus is we install a plate on the bottom of the bus, and that plate is able to communicate wirelessly with the charger when it drives over it,” Bench said.

The road will contain inductive charging coils that will transfer energy to the vehicle’s battery. The vehicle can be charged while driving or stationary.

Bench said this will reduce the downtime needed to charge the buses and enable the vehicles to use lighter batteries.

Construction on the road should be minimal as coils are typically placed within the top layer of the road, Bench said. Charging coils can be placed during the road’s regular resurfacing.

Just follow the electric roadway

The charging road will be less than a mile long and installed along Charles E. Young Drive, a loop road that goes around the center of UCLA’s campus.

“So part of that road will be equipped with wireless charging technology. Depending on the speed of the buses that are going over the coils along the way, we could get as much as three or four extra miles worth of charge,” Bench said.

The charge would be enough for the buses to continuously drive back and forth on that electric stretch indefinitely.

“So in the future, if we're able to equip all of the roads where we have our transit routes running, we should be able to dramatically reduce the number of stationary chargers with plugs that we need to have at our depot,” Bench said.

Eyes on the future

Beyond the charging road, the grant will also fund the installation of more stationary wireless chargers as part of UCLA’s new intermodal transit center that will connect to L.A’.s D Line station.

UCLA Transportation will also purchase eight new battery electric buses that will allow the BruinBus fleet to be fully electric, Bench said.

“This is the beginning of what I hope will be a much expanded implementation of wireless charging throughout Southern California,” Bench added.