South Korean road wirelessly recharges OLEV buses

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K0rean road charges vehiclesSouth Korea has switched on a road which can recharge electric vehicles as they drive over it. The project's developer says the 12km (7.5 miles) route is the first of its kind in the world.

It means vehicles fitted with compatible equipment do not need to stop to recharge and can also be fitted with smaller than normal batteries.

Two public buses are already using the technology and there are plans to add 10 more by 2015.

"It's quite remarkable that we succeeded with the OLEV [online electric vehicle] project so that buses are offering public transportation services to passengers," said Dong-Ho Cho, who led the team behind the scheme at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

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