韩国高级科技学院的研究员们近日展示了他们设计的一款环保节能型公共汽车。这款不需要汽油或机油作为动力来源的“绿色”公车，依靠的是车身底部装置的磁铁与地面下埋设的充电带之间产生的电流，因此可以大大减少汽油消耗及有害气体的排放量。

    The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has unveiled a new electric transport powered by recharging strips embedded in roads that transfers energy through magnetic connections. There are no direct connections with wires.

    Vehicles with sensor-driven magnetic devices on their underside suck up energy as they travel over the strips embedded a few centimeters under the road, “The technological concept behind the idea has been around for about 100 years. We have found a better way to transfer the electricity to make it practical,” said project member B. K. Park.

    The university, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, has four prototype buses using the technology on its campus and is in talks with Seoul and other cities to have buses running in the next three years using the so-called “online electrical vehicle” system.

    The strips are attached to small electrical stations and are laid in bus lanes and roads running up to intersections so that vehicles can power up where traffic slows down. Unlike electric lines used for trams, vehicles do not need to be in constant contact with the strips and a person can touch the lines without receiving a shock.

    The non-contact transfer of electricity, also called inductive charging, works by magnets and cables on the underside of the vehicle making a connection with the current in the recharging strip to receive power as they travel over it. It is used in some brands of electric toothbrushes that are sealed and do not need to be plugged into anything but use a magnetic connection to receive energy while resting in a cradle.