[Steverino]

Within six months all 276 miles of the interstate between Canada and Oregon will be peppered with electric charging points for your car of the future, in a project that'll turn it into the electric interstate of the 21st Century. A small section of U.S. 2 in Washington State will also get the same treatment.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1766823/within-six-months-i-5-will-be-the-electric-interstate?partner=gnews

Seems more critical for pure EV's than for the Volt. But if this applies to rest area's could be good for Volts too depending on price to charge.

 

[Raymondjram]

I prefer the "slot car" installation. Any EV can keep itself charged while riding over the contacts in the road. One lane wired the entire way will be enough for all EVs, and there is no need to stop!

 

[Steverino]

Of course, we'd need to make sure the cars don't fly off the road in S curves.

 

[voltage692]

Really a very silly idea.

Hmm...If I happen to have bought a L3 capable car, then I can turn a normally 4 hour road trip into a 9 hour trip that includes stopping to charge at all 9 stations, longer if someone else happens to be using that charging station I need.

Or if I have a L2 car, then it will simply become a 40 hour trip instead of 4.

Yea, great idea.

Oh, and ONLY $1 million dollars! Dr. Evil would be proud. So if you're wondering what it costs to install these commercial chargers? Well, in this case it's more than $110,000 each!

If you pay $3-4 for a charge, and maybe each of these chargers gets used at most on average 2 times a day (no way by the way), then after you deduct the cost of electricity and maintenance, you might be looking at $.50 of gross profit from every charge.

So:

$.50 X 2 time/day X 365 days/year = $365/year gross profit against a $110,000 investment...

WAIT FOR IT...YES! A 301 year break even point!

Wow.

 

[larry4pyro]

One charging station ever 40 to 60 miles doesn't seem adequate. If it takes 30 minutes for a quick charge wouldn't that mean that stretch of highway could only support one EV every 30 minutes? So it sound like any EV wanting to drive the highway would have to queue up at the first station, before proceeding to the next charging station. If there were 100 EVs, you would only have to wait 50 hours, then you can drive 40 to 60 miles to the next station and stop a 30 minute recharge.

I also recall a Nissan offical saying frequent fast charging would void the Leaf's battery warranty.

 

[Raymondjram]

Of course, we'd need to make sure the cars don't fly off the road in S curves.

We all know that the Volt is very stable around curves, so it will not leave the "slot" I can't say the same for other EV's yet.

But mounting two rails down one lane for 276 miles will not cost the full million, and that lane can hold many EV's at the same time with only one or two high capacity chargers. Maybe we have to wait for the Delco inductive (non-contact) charger, and bury the coils in the pavement.

Easy, right?