Charging your electric car via a street light will soon be possible

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Motoring enthusiasts know the dilemma of owning an electric car in India and other countries. The reasons being lack of charging stations, high ownership costs and the time taken to charge these vehicles. But looks like BMW has a fix that could change the way we look at the electric cars.

The German manufacturer has developed a street light which is equipped with sockets to charge electric cars. BMW said it has made two prototypes "Light and Charge" street lights which combine efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LED) with the company's ChargeNow recharging stations for electric cars.

The company has scheduled a pilot project run in Munich next year with the local authority lightning networks . This is a very interesting technological initiative that will not only help the electric car owners but also local authorities who will be able to monetise  its infrastructure. 

If this technology actually rolls out in full scale in the future, the sales of electric cars is sure to increase. However, we are not sure whether the company has undertaken any feasibility study on the traffic woes that is bound to happen once a group of electric cars line up to charge through a particular street light at the same time. BMW can overcome this problem if the numbers of such street lights are more than the electric cars and when we say more, it has to be atleast  thrice the number. It should also depend on the location as to where they have sold the maximum units of the cars. 

Have you imagined if something like this comes to India? Well, we have, and passed that thought off! Such technology is not at all feasible for Indian roads.  And if you are one of the readers who travel to Germany quite often, you can explore this technology at BMW headquarters where two street lights are already installed. Drivers will be able to pay to charge their cars via a mobile phone app.