THE FUTURE

There is no shortage of articles on the coming superbatteries, cheap and long-lasting, with great energy and power densities at ambient temperatures; what is lacking are the superbatteries.

So the very near future seems to hold only an EV that is considerably inferior to a gasoline powered car while costing at least 25% more.

The distant future (end of the century?) may hold electrified highways to charge batteries while the car is in motion. A coil in the paving running along the center of a lane, 2 ft wide and 1.5 ins deep, would be covered by an insulator (to prevent electric shocks to pedestrians and other unmotorized animals), and would transfer a charge to the cars driving above it via a pick-up coil. That coil, 1 or 2 ins. above the well marked supply line, would take up the charge by electromagnetic induction. (The idea is faintly reminiscent of the Flying Scotsman, a steampowered train in the 1930's that made the run from Edinburgh to London without stopping, lowering a pick-up pipe into a long water basin between the rails to replenish the engine boiler on the run.)

EV's would then use their batteries for driving along unelectrified stretches of the road (and unelectrified roads). The method is technically feasible now; however, it needs not only the investment in electrified roads, but enough viable EV's to make such an investment worthwhile.

"If the US Interstate System were electrified in this fashion," states an optimistic report on the subject, "one could drive from San Francisco to New York without stopping to recharge." Yep. And if the Atlantic Ocean were not in the way, one could continue on to Paris.

But then, nobody is suggesting that it has to be done overnight. The simple fact is that electrifying long stretches of the Interstate System is an idea far less absurd than to give up the heart, soul and muscle of the individual freedom to travel.

[More: "The promise and puzzle of electric vehicles," EPRI Journal, Nov. 1979; "Is an electric vehicle in your future?" by E. C. Hackleman, Envir. Sci. & Technol., Sept. 1977; Symposium on the electric car, 16-page inset, free from Edison Electr. Inst., 1111-19^th st., Washington, DC 20036; "The curent state of battery research" by D. C. Tofield, Electrical Review (London), 5 Jan. 1979; "Superbatteries: a progress report," by J.R. Birk and others, IEEE Spectrum, March 1979.