Roads That Charge Electric Cars
Charge While You Drive
Believe it or not, the UK is testing roads that can actually charge your electric car as you drive. It seems that electric cars are rapidly becoming the future of transportation. This transformation has been helped in no small part by Tesla Motors who have just announced that its patents will now be made ‘open source’ and available to everyone. With the release of the patent technologies, we can expect a very rapid transition from the combustion engine to electric propulsion engines.
Although electric power is rapidly changing technology, the general public still holds to the perception that it takes much longer and is far more inconvenient to power up than to fill up at a typical petrol station. It is also a fear that the range is too short per charge, that charging stations are slow and too few and far between.
Ingenious New Technology
New and ingenious technologies are developing all the time and as such the British Government is developing the testing phase of a radical new innovation in wireless electrical road charging. It is hoped that this new technology will encourage the purchase of new electric vehicles.
It will not be long before you can charge your car as you drive down the motorway at 70 mph, without stopping, without hooking up to chargers, without waiting for 30 minutes while the car charges up, without getting wet in the rain as you fill up the tank at the petrol station.
Dynamic Wireless Charging
It would seem that this new alternative is a no brainer. Right under the roadway, wireless magnetic induction technology which is quite similar to mobile phone charge technology. Cables under the road would sense the presence of an electric vehicle above the tarmac and would generate an electromagnetic field which can be picked up by a transceiver in the vehicle which in turn generates electrical power.
Over the next 5 years, this new and innovative charging technology will be tested on restricted roads designated for this specific purpose. This, as you can imagine, is not cheap technology. It is estimated to cost the British Government £639 million. Along with this plan, it is also proposed to roll out a network of charging stations until they have one every 20 miles.
Again, the main drive behind these new clean technologies and implementations is the commitment to reduce emissions. It certainly looks like mobile electrical power is the future of passenger transportation.
Author
Justin Kavanagh
Justin Kavanagh is a recognised leader
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