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No. Sweden did not just open the world’s first electric highway. The planned E20 road between Hallsberg and Örebro was intended to become Sweden’s first permanent electric road, but Trafikverket says the project was terminated after losing funding and being removed from the national infrastructure plan in February 2025. Sweden did run earlier electric-road trials, including a 2016 test on the E16—but those demonstrations were not a newly opened permanent highway.
What happened to Sweden’s planned E20 electric road?
Trafikverket selected a section of the E20 between Hallsberg and Örebro in 2021 for a proposed permanent electric-road pilot. The agency said at the time that it might open around the turn of 2025–2026. That forecast was superseded: procurement was cancelled in August 2023 because costs had risen and funding was insufficient; the project was put on hold in 2024; and the government removed it from Sweden’s National Transport Infrastructure Plan in February 2025. Trafikverket now says the pilot was terminated and that it has no electric-road project planned, although it will continue to monitor the technology. Trafikverket’s current E20 project page is the source for that status. The original announcement describes the 2021 selection and forecast.
The proposal was meant to test a complete electric-road system, including supporting services and toll and access arrangements. E20 was selected after comparison with Route 73 using planning factors such as road type, traffic volume, freight arrangements, environmental setting, power supply and national defence interests. These were criteria for a proposed project, not evidence that the road was built or operated.
What is an electric road?
An electric road transfers power to a moving vehicle from equipment installed in or above the roadway. Unlike a conventional charger, it can supply electricity while a compatible vehicle is travelling. That broad description covers several distinct systems; there is no single universal electric-road design.
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Overhead contact lines
In the 2016 E16 test at Sandviken, a truck-mounted current collector connected to overhead lines. Trafikverket described a two-kilometre test stretch, lines 5.4 metres above the road, 750 V DC supplied to the truck’s hybrid electric system, and automatic connection at speeds up to 90 km/h. Those are specifications of the Sandviken demonstration, not of the proposed E20 road. Trafikverket’s 2016 announcement gives the test details.
Conductive rail in the road
A conductive system uses an energized rail embedded in the road and a collector on the vehicle to make contact. Trials included a rail system in the Arlanda area and short conductive rail segments in Lund, where a city bus was tested on a one-kilometre road section.
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Inductive charging
Inductive systems transfer power wirelessly between equipment in the road and a compatible vehicle. Smartroad Gotland tested this approach near Visby: Trafikverket describes an electrified 1.6-kilometre section within a 4.1-kilometre demonstration route, with an electric truck used for validation.
Trafikverket’s program page on electrification of the state road network describes these demonstrations and the agency’s view that different technologies may suit different traffic, vehicles and locations. It says the trials aimed to build evidence about use, construction, operation, maintenance and the effects of different solutions. The agency describes that work as trials; it does not establish a current operating Swedish electric highway.
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Is Sweden’s electric highway the world’s first?
The available official evidence supports a narrower description: E20 was planned as Sweden’s first permanent electric road. It does not support calling it the world’s first electric highway, and the E20 project did not open. Trafikverket’s 2016 announcement said Sweden would become “one of the first countries in the world” to test electric power for heavy transport on public roads. That statement concerned a test, not a claim that a permanent highway had opened first worldwide.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did the Swedish trials establish—and what remains unknown?
The demonstrations showed that different methods of supplying power to moving vehicles could be tested on public roads in Sweden. They also provided a basis for studying construction, operation and maintenance. They should not be confused with a proven nationwide system or with evidence that one method is best for every road and vehicle.
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Trafikverket gives an early, rough estimate of SEK 20–45 million per kilometre for a bidirectional electric road including the electricity grid. The agency says a qualified calculation was premature and that the range depends on the technology and the share of the road electrified. This is not an E20 budget or a firm cost for future projects. The reviewed official material does not provide a market-wide measured emissions reduction or a comparative performance statistic for electric roads.
In 2016, Trafikverket Director General Lena Erixon said: “Electric roads will bring us one step closer to fossil fuel-free transports, and has the potential to achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions.” The wording describes a potential benefit, not a measured result from the trials.
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