ElectReon, Tel Aviv municipality to lay pilot electric road

The Tel Aviv municipality will conduct a pilot of an electrified road section for passenger buses developed by ElectReon Wireless (TASE: ELWS). The pilot includes deployment of at least one kilometer of electrified road infrastructure and testing the economic viability of operating a bus on the company infrastructure. The pilot is in cooperation with Dan Bus Company.

ElectReon uses smart road technology for wireless charging of electric vehicles. The company installs coils beneath the surface of roads for charging electric vehicles while they are traveling. This can extend the vehicles' traveling range, while saving time spent on charging them and significantly reducing their weight. The cars will be equipped with a small battery to enable them to travel on road sections that lack ElectReon's coil infrastructure.

ElectReon recently reported the conclusion of an initial trial of its electric road system, and presented a vehicle traveling continuously on a 25-meter road section in the company's test area in Beit Yannay. ElectReon's share price is up 4% on the TASE in today's trading, and has gained over 260% in the past two months, although it is 40% below the record it set only two weeks ago.

On January 1, Frost and Sullivan, which began covering ElectReon with a target share price of NIS 25, published an analysis of the company. The study states, "ElectReon's technology is included in a sector (wireless charging through a smart road) estimated by Frost and Sullivan at over $35 billion." ElectReon's share price has since surged to NIS 56. At the same time, competition in the sector is fierce, and "at least 17 companies are now in this sector at various stages of development and testing solutions around the world."

ElectReon was founded in late 2013 by chairperson and CEO Oren Ezer and CTO Hanan Rumbak. They founded the company after serving in various positions in Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT). ElectReon was first listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in October 2017, when it merged with stock exchange shell Biomedix. ElectReon is controlled by Ezer and Rombak, each of whom owns 19% of the shares, and Dan Bus Company (13.6%).

Ezer said. "ElectReon regards the pilot as the first practical application of its technology, which has the potential to make Tel Aviv the first city in the world to apply such technology on a large scale. This will facilitate a sustainable and economically worthwhile transition to fully electric transportation, including public transportation, distribution trucks, and private and autonomous vehicles. This project can potentially make a great contribution to reducing air pollution from public transportation in the city, while maintaining the existing level of service and improving it in the future. The infrastructure has almost no visual effect on the city, thereby removing on of the main barriers to electric transportation. Demonstrating an electric road in Tel Aviv will have an extensive impact on both the quality of air in the city for its residents' benefit and in presenting an extremely advanced transportation solution to the entire world, while positioning Israel as a global leader in the field. The pilot will arouse worldwide interest."