The main factors that are limiting the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs) are lack of range and long charging times. Progress is being made with better batteries and faster charging stations, but another answer is creating roads that charge your car as you drive. Sweden has electric rails on some highways that allow trucks to charge with an arm on their undercarriage that draws power from the rail. The German firm Siemens has installed cables and wires above a three-mile stretch of road outside Frankfurt that will allow cars to charge as they drive – similar to the way that trams charge.
 
But perhaps the most innovative idea is being tried in the US state of Indiana. The German firm Magment has built a system there that starts by burying electrified wire coils in the cement of the road. This creates a magnetic field along the road surface and cars will be fitted with a receiver coil to pick up the charge as they drive over the road. The company claims that their system will achieve transmission efficiency of up to 95% and that the cost will be similar to standard road construction.