Electric road

An electric road, eroad, e-roadway, or electric road system (ERS) is a road which supplies electric power to vehicles travelling on it. Common implementations are overhead power lines above the road, ground-level power supply through conductive rails, and dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) through resonant inductive coils or inductive cables embedded in the road.

Overhead power lines are limited to commercial vehicles while ground-level rails and inductive power transfer can be used by any vehicle, which allows for public charging through a system for power metering and billing. Research papers for the government of Sweden, published in 2019, and France, published in 2021, separately estimate that in-road conductive rail ERS is the most cost-effective.

As of 2024 there were about 10 operational ERS demonstrators around the world, and their business cases and deployment strategies are being evaluated. As of 2025 electric road technical standards are only available for in-road rail of the three ERS technologies.

Other than describing electric road systems, terms like "electric highway" may also describe regular roads fitted with charging stations at regular intervals.

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