This Road Charges Your Car While You Drive: Florida’s Futuristic New Expressway

January 13, 2026

Imagine driving down the highway and watching your EV battery percentage go up instead of down. It sounds like science fiction, but in Central Florida, it’s officially becoming a reality. The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) is breaking ground this year on State Road 516, a 4.4-mile stretch connecting Lake and Orange counties. While it looks like a standard highway, one specific lane is about to become the most advanced piece of infrastructure in the country.

Known as the Lake/Orange Expressway, the project features a three-quarter-mile pilot section equipped with wireless inductive charging technology. Instead of plugging into a station and waiting 45 minutes, specially equipped electric vehicles will simply drive over electromagnetic coils buried beneath the road surface. These coils transfer power wirelessly to a receiver on the vehicle’s undercarriage—much like a giant version of the wireless charging pad you use for your iPhone.

The goal of SR 516 isn’t just to get people from Clermont to Orlando faster; it’s to solve the biggest headache for EV owners: Range Anxiety.

Smaller Batteries: If the road provides the power, cars won’t need massive, heavy, and expensive battery packs to travel long distances.

Continuous Travel: This technology is a massive win for commercial trucking and delivery fleets, allowing them to stay on the road without stopping for hours to recharge.
Sustainability: The project is pursuing “Platinum” status for sustainability, using solar panels to power the road’s lights and toll equipment.

While construction on the first segments begins in 2026, don’t expect to charge your Tesla on it just yet. The charging lane will initially be limited to “specially equipped vehicles” for testing to ensure the system can handle highway speeds and Florida’s intense weather.

The full 4.4-mile expressway is expected to open to the general public by 2029, serving as a global testbed for how we’ll travel in the decades to come.

Written by: Oliver Ford