Development of the Electric Vehicles and Battery Chargers for Road Maintenance with ITS Technology

To address global warming, environmentally-friendly vehicles with less carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been studied, developed, widely sold and popularized since the 1990s. Mass-production of hybrid cars began in 1997, and are in wide use today especially in Japan, the U.S., and Europe. Electric vehicles have received much attention in recent years and mass-produced electric vehicles came to the market around 2009. Following this trend, Research & Development (R&D) on electric vehicles is currently underway all around the world. As a highway company, our company owns numerous large-sized work vehicles and is therefore aware of the necessity of reducing CO2 emissions. This study focuses on introducing electric vehicles mainly for large-sized maintenance vehicles in the company, as well as the wireless charging systems that will be a key technology for popularizing electric vehicles in the future. To begin with, a signboard vehicle that carries a Light Emitting Diodes (LED) display board is planned for introduction. This paper introduces a current ongoing collaborative study with private businesses. The manufacture and practical usage of the vehicles are planned for the next fiscal year.