The Problem: There are too few places to charge electric vehicles
The Solution: Pre-fabricated kerbs with charging sockets that cars plug into
Not a week goes by without a newspaper article bemoaning the lack of electric vehicle (EV) charging points and highlighting how these are key to the widespread roll out of EVs to replace petrol and diesel vehicles.
On my route to the train station there is a roadside charging point, a big cylinder with a wire and plug coming out of it to charge vehicles.
These are bulky and expensive to install, and only offer power for two vehicles in two specific locations within reach of the charger, which seems inefficient.
I therefore propose a different solution, which is to create prefabricated kerbstones with plugs in them and a small hollow core to enable wires to run through them. These kerbs would be of standard sizes, as many kerbstones already are, and would be a modular structure, able to clip together to enable electric connectivity through their length.
The plugs would look much like those at camping sites, with a spring-loaded cover to keep the effects of weather off them, but would not protrude out of the kerb at all.
Power would then be taken from streetlamps on high streets, or other electronic sources in places such as car parks, and run through these kerbstones, enabling cars to plug into any kerb and charge.
Each kerbstone would have a simple electronic tag that would automatically bill the vehicle for the electricity used, and pay that bill to the provider.
The major change in this idea to the status quo is that cars should carry plugs and wires around with them, rather than having the plugs and wires on charging stations; to make EVs rather more like PEDs (personal electronic devices) and less like petrol cars.
In the same way we plug our laptops and phones into plugs in the wall, so we would do that for EVs.
This would allow for the mass rollout of EV charging technology as every car parking space could quickly and inexpensively become an EV charging point. On motorways, too, hard shoulders could have regular emergency charging locations in case cars ran out of power on a longer drive.
By making the designs pre-fabricated and to standard measurements, economies of scale can be achieved, making them much cheaper to produce; they also become an investment, as those owning car parks can install them to make money from charging for power as well as a car parking space.
A good extra revenue stream for the National Trust, for example.
It even gets to the stage where we can do away completely with petrol stations; we simply need car parking spaces instead which people would drive into, walk into the shop to buy a few things while the car charged, and then carry on, increasing charging capacity.
And with so many charging locations, worries about running out of power would diminish, helping spur the widespread adoption of EVs.
A simple idea that provides a very literal take on kerbside re-charging.
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