Poly Segment Monorail, a conductive method as an alternative for highway electrification.

Vehicles driven on alternative fuels, such as electric vehicles (EVs), are becoming more common while awareness of a diminishing oil supply, oil prices and environmental pollution are increasing. Despite technical breakthroughs, the low energy density in the battery is a problem that limits long distance travel, especially for heavy-duty vehicles (HDV). The low energy density combined with the high cost and the uncertain predictable lifetime of the battery could be estimated to hamper the expansion of the long distance EVs. Electrified highways connecting cities could be one solution to reduce the battery and fuel dependency by supplying electricity continuously to the vehicles. Different technical solutions of electric roads, both conductive and inductive, have been proven functional but are today mainly used in the tram and train industry. Despite the inductive system’s major benefit of not relying on a physical contact, an inductive system is not necessarily the best option due to high costs and questionable efficiency. This said, also a conductive system intended for highway transport, despite the mature technology used, is far from problem free. This paper presents the new concept Poly segment monorail (PSM), intended to reduce the drawbacks of the general conductive system for highways. PSM utilizes segments alternating each other at road level, in contrast to traditionally being parallel and sometimes partially buried. With the new design and segments that are galvanically insulated, reduced losses and increase safety could be achieved. The paper also highlights the complexity for the new technology, involving several stakeholder markets, to achieve an international standard, which could be estimated a requirement for such a system to be beneficial and reasonable.