
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990                   TAG: 9004200226
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROAD TO POWER ELECTRIC CARS

In a radically different approach to commercializing electric vehicles and thereby cutting air pollution, Southern California Edison Co. and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have announced plans to build a road that transfers electric power from underground cables to cars and buses on the surface without physical contact.

The technology could make the range of electric cars almost infinite, the sponsors said, even if only big highways and arterial roads were energized.

On the electrified highway, which could also be used by gasoline-powered cars, electric power could be used not only to run the motor, but also to recharge small batteries that would power cars between electrified segments.

In the $2 million demonstration project, cables buried in the concrete of 1,000 feet of road would create a magnetic field at the surface of the road. A metal plate on the bottom of the vehicle would convert the magnetic force back into electricity.

The vehicle would run on ordinary rubber tires and would not look much different from a standard gasoline-powered model - one of the first two vehicles, in fact, will be in the body of a GM Rally van. It would differ by having a metal plate descending to within 1 1/2 to 3 inches of the road, depending on the type of vehicle, when power was available.

The plan would require a flat road, rebuilt in the installation of the equipment, project engineers said. Roads in Los Angeles do not suffer the freeze-thaw cycle that creates bumps in colder climates.

"The vision is that as you get up in the morning and go to work, you would travel a few miles on batteries to get to the powered roadway," said Joseph N. Reeves, the research manager at Southern California Edison, which is owned by SCE Corp.

by CNB