An electrified road future. : A feasibility study of electric road systems (ERS) for the logistic sector in Sweden.

Electrification of transportation could be one pathway into sustainability since the electricity production can originate from renewable and low carbon energy sources. Electrifying the road could also reduce the battery dependence and further increase the vehicle efficiency in sense of energy consumption and load capacity when thinking of storage of electric energy in vehicle batteries. Not only is the Electric Road System (ERS) a rather new concept, it also raises concerns about consequences on health, safety, environment and public acceptance. The aim of this master thesis, within the logistics domain, is to interdisciplinary investigate the concept of electrified roads and to define potential blockers and in various extents investigate their feasibility. The potential blockers are assessed at a system level meaning that the depth of analysis of each aspect depends on the amount of data available and the relative importance according to the experts. Given the limits of research time, points that require more investigation have been indicated. This study will have a focus on freight vehicles since that is the vehicle considered to lack alternative solution towards decarbonization. The areas chosen for a closer analysis are health, safety and environment. The information available regarding the ERS impact on those areas is very limited even though they seem to constitute crucial factors for gaining the public acceptance. By investigating energy usage and CO 2 emissions in different phases of the ERS, the feasibility of the environment is assessed. Investigating the Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) produced by the inductive on-road charging technology, part of the ERS, approaches the possible health effects of ERS. Health effects of particles and pollutants are also touched upon. Accidents involving Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the transportation of dangerous goods through ERS will also be analyzed in the safety chapter. Ongoing projects and available technologies are used and taken into consideration throughout the study. Feedback from the industry and people involved with the ERS concept contribute in defining the fields facing significant uncertainties. In the last part, two scenarios are being analyzed in the sense of testing the feasibility of the inductive on-road charging in city logistics and for the big city triangle. This study has its base in literature reviews and interviews with experts within the industry. The different ERS technologies are still under development why many specific parameters are confidential. This poses some unintentional limits to this study in the sense of difficulty drawing specific conclusions. Therefore factors such as commercialization of the vehicle, health, safety and development time remain uncertain. Others such as environmental impact seem to benefit from the ERS, while others motivates the introduction of ERS such as the battery manufacturing