Highways England is Full Charge Ahead with Latest Idea

Highways England is “charging” ahead with its latest innovative idea. Keep reading to learn more! (Image: gizmag.com)

Despite the fact that the United Kingdom plans to add plug-in chargers every 20 miles along highways, they are planning on testing out a better way to make driving an electric vehicle even easier!

Highways England recently announced that they will begin an 18-month trial to test charging lanes.

The goal of this trial is to hopefully boost the range of electric cars by introducing roads that can simultaneously charge a vehicle while driving.

During this trial, vehicles will be equipped with wireless technology while special equipment will be installed underneath the roads to replicate motorway conditions.

Electromagnetic fields will then be generated, thanks to electric cables that will be buried under the surface. These fields will then be picked up by a coil inside of the vehicle’s device that is then converted into electricity.

If this trial goes well, the new electrically-charged highways would be an added benefit to the existing network of plug-in chargers.

Highways England electrically-charged highway (image: gizmag.com).

Though the benefits of more charging options may seem fairly obvious, if this trial conducted by Highways England works out, it could also potentially save drivers time and improve the distance that electric vehicles can travel.

The duo of charging stations, as well as the charging highway, can help foster a comprehensive ecosystem for electric vehicles.

Highways England has planned the first trial for later this year. As mentioned before, a section of fake highway will be created in order to test the new technology and after the 18 months have elapsed, the group will decide on next steps and if they want to scale up the research or not.

Will it be full charge ahead with Highways England’s latest innovation? I guess we’ll see in 18 months!

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

Sources:

https://mashable.com/2015/08/17/electric-car-charging-uk/