Electrifying Our Freeways

Here’s an article on Utah State University’s project to build a track on which to test the concept of the inductive charging of a moving electric vehicle.

My question: Why? No one’s doubting that it can be done, but at the same time, I don’t hear anyone saying that this has practical consequences in the real world. It’s pretty clear that this is not a direction we’re going to pursue in the evolving world of transportation, for the reasons I provided in the post linked above.

I had the pleasure of meeting Steven Chu (pictured) a couple of times when he was the U.S. Energy Secretary, and I believe in his position: we’re fairly close to battery packs that will give us a 350- or 400-mile range, which is all any sane person wants to drive in a day.