Who would have thought that a thirty year old concept could lead to the inspiration for a modern day problem? The concept of electric cars seem to be here to stay, but a number of challenges still need to be overcome.

At one or other stage in our lives we’ve all seen those little Scalextric cars – you know, the little racing cars running on a miniature race track.

The cars fit into an elecric slot embedded inside the track which is used to power the small electric engines that actually cause the cars to move forward at various speeds. Well, there seems to be an idea to use a portion of that concept to power electric cars of the future in almost the same way. The only difference is that future cars would not need to make any physcal contact with the embedded slot within the road. Instead of making physical contact with the ‘charger’, the cars will have the option of driving in a special lane designed to charge the car’s battery via an electro-magnetic field that is emitted from the road surface.

This will also enable the car to be re-charged while standing still in a parking lot for instance. Using Maxwell electromagnetic laws whereby electric current flowing through a conductor generates a magnetic field, the car can be charged by by simply driving over one of the magnetic fields which in turn generates power and charges the batteries within in the car.

A definitive advantage with this method is that there does not need to be any physical contact with the car’s charger, which obviously reduces wear and tear of the charging system to almost nothing. Another advantage is that this kind of system is that it not weather dependant, and where the range of electric vehicles used to be limited, this new system allows for a virtually unlimited range.

The company behind the concept, IAV Automotive Engineering Inc., is confident that electromagnetic induction technology may be developed and production ready within the next few years. A fulll scale test track are already in the planning stages in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Although actual implementation of this concept is probably years away, it does seem to address a number of challenges that current electric vehicles may face on the roads. This concept may be a viable alternative to the limiting factors for electric vehicles – especially in the area of range. It certainly seems to be a viable and practical solution. We’ll have to wait and