The biggest problem with bringing electric cars to the mainstream market is the limited driving distance they have – no matter how energy efficient they are, the battery eventually needs to be charged, which takes longer than simply fuelling up at a gas pump.
Regardless of the number of electric car charging stations set up on roadsides, or EV plugless power systems are invented, long-distances are still thought to be out of the question for electric cars.
But a new clean tech electric vehicle system created in Japan suggests gas-free vehicles could eventually be driven without ever needing to charge.
As Fast Company reports:
Researchers at Toyota Central R&D Labs and Toyohashi University of Technology have come up with what they think is the world’s first mid-drive charging system, based on a similar mechanism that allows trains to travel under overhead wires.
Under the still-experimental system, electrified metal plates are buried under roads, which “up-convert” energy via a radio frequency to a steel belt inside a car’s tires, as well as to a plate sitting above the tire.
Could this invention be the key to widespread electric car adoption? It certainly seems like, technologically, it could get us there.
But who could pay for the infrastructure at this point?
Once again, the environment is foiled by the economy!
