The Highways Agency is considering ways to allow electric vehicles to recharge their batteries while they drive on the UK's strategic route network.
The Agency will be tendering within the next two weeks for consultants to carry out a feasibility study on the use of the motorway and trunk road network for the dynamic recharging of electric vehicles (EV) while they are on the move.
Project director Ian Thompson told an ITS (UK) conference this week that the 15-month study will pave the way for test-track trials in 2015, followed by an on-road pilot in 2016 - the UK pilot site has yet to be chosen.
The initiative forms part of a new focus on road users as customers by the Highways Agency which by April 2015 is set to be a Government-owned company instead of the executive agency of a government department.
Some estimate by 2020 there could be one million EVs on UK roads and the Highways Agency sees dynamic charging as an added service that could be provided to drivers enabling them to use motorways without worrying about charging issues.
