In 2026, Florida will break ground on a highway that can wirelessly charge EVs at high speeds in small-scale tests that could have big implications for the future of mobility.
The highway is actually only 3/4 mile of a larger construction project, the 4.4-mile State Road 516 (SR 516) Lake/Orange Expressway.
The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) is building SR 516 in three segments. The first, as shown on the map below, will showcase wireless charging technology. CFX says the highway will be open to the public when it’s finished in 2029, but the charging system will only work “for initial testing of charging lanes on specially equipped vehicles ….”
One of the segment SR516 will have wireless EV charging test equipment. (Credit: CFX)
It remains to be seen whether the project will focus on charging trucks or passenger vehicles. Elsewhere, recent tests have focused on trucks. In October, France activated a highway that can receive trucks wirelessly in partnership with Electron, according to interesting engineering reports.
In 2023, the state of Michigan also announced that it had partnered with Electron to install a quarter-mile wireless charging public roadway in Detroit for testing purposes. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) said it planned to request bids for the reconstruction of part of Michigan Avenue in 2024, but that has not happened.
However, in a major milestone earlier this month, Purdue University researchers in partnership with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) completed the first successful wireless highway charging test in the US. Their system drove a semi-truck at 65mph, providing 190 kilowatts of power, or more than enough for even small vehicles.
“It’s a system designed to work for the heavier segment of trucks through passenger cars,” says Aaron Brovant, research assistant professor at Purdue’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
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Electric Cummins charges the heavy-duty truck as it runs along a test segment in Indiana. (Credit: Purdue University Photo/Kelsey Lefour)
Although wireless charging is common for small devices, such as mobile phones, it has not yet become mainstream for electric cars. Their large batteries pose an engineering challenge, especially when traveling at high speeds on a highway. “Because vehicles travel so much faster on highways than on city streets, they need to be charged at a higher level of electricity,” Perdue says.
However, there’s no question that wireless charging would be an improvement over fiddling around with clunky power cords. Autonomous is also easy because the car can park itself on a pad and start generating electricity. That’s why Tesla plans to charge its future Robotaxis wirelessly. CEO Elon Musk remarked on stage at 2024 that it was “high time” the company made this change. In April 2025, Tesla said it was also looking into wireless charging for its V4 Superchargers, but we haven’t seen any yet.
It would be even better to generate power passively while driving – science fiction turned reality.
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As a news and features writer at PCMag, I cover the biggest tech trends that shape the way we live and work. I specialize in on-the-ground reporting, uncovering the stories of people who are at the center of change—whether it’s the CEO of a high-value startup or the everyday person driving Big Tech. I also cover daily tech news and breaking stories, putting them into context so you get the whole picture.
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