Could electric cars be charged on the road?

[moneysmith]

What if pads where placed on some roads every few miles, that would send energy up into an electric car? They could work by sending AC electricity through the air Tesla style, like those wireless cellphone chargers.

The cars would carry little ID tags. So every time they took energy from a pad the company could collect a fee from the driver. And the driver could have an option to turn the system off if they didn't need to be charged(electrically or monetarily).

[xprestonex]

Thats actually quite intriguing, and a very good question. I like where you are going with that, I don't have time to write alot right now but I am also fascinated with electric and renewable energy cars. I have my own drawings of my own ideas for my version of an electric car.

[CeeKay]

Imho, I'd rather have them in my garage and driveway, so if I had an electric car, I wouldn't actually have to plug it in! Just drive into the garage, get out, and a little LED on the fender or dash or grille or something would blink, signaling that it's receiving charge voltage... With some sensors, it would automatically turn-off when your car is not present (simple infra- or laser-cams like garage door safety cams would do the trick). This way, it would use your own home's power meter to bill you, and automatically turn off/on when car is gone/present, as to not waste electricity sending charge voltage through your garage 24/7... As for losing a gasoline tax for the roads: Tax tires and spur gears or something!! Even electric cars use-up commodities! ;)

With these pads in the streets:

What's the required proximity on those wireless chargers? Seems electric cars would have to have something dangling near an inch off the road, which might be taken-out by mostly- or near-unavoidable road debris or rough/broken pavement in general...

Also, what sort of amperage do these pads put out? Would it even be feasible to charge something as massive as an electric passenger vehicle's batteries with such a method?

What about snow buildup and the damaging effects of plow blades and road sand/salt/melting snow on these little pads?

I would think they'd need to be installed en-masse at every red light, stop sign, and parking spot, so your car can charge while it's not moving, as a swift pass over one of these devices would most presumably yield <0.001% charge...

RFID taxing the usage of these devices sounds criminal, but I suppose we'd have to pay for them somehow! >_<

At first, I thought you were suggesting installing these on an RC track, for keeping battery drop to a minimum (cars getting sluggish after a few minutes' constant run, etc)... Which imho would be an incredibly awesome idea!! I don't know how efficient it would be, but I'd totally throw a charge-receiver on my buggy for testing purposes! :)

Just my 2 cents on your idea... :)


- CK