Induction is an electrical phenomenon that can create current in a circuit when it passes close to another that's carrying a charge. The important point being that the two circuits don't need to be in contact so it's ideal for something like vehicles. Apparently the UK government is actually considering this as an option, as the image on the left (courtesy Highways England) shows.
So what's the problem? This is wonderful news isn't it? Er... no. Let's think about this. To use an induction system you need two things; cars that use the system to charge and roads that have the system installed. No country is going to agree to do the work on installing this to their roads unless they know it's going to be used and vital to the economy, that means there will have to be an agreement from all vehicle manufacturers to build using the system. They'll need to agree upon a standard, at the very least at the country level but in Europe, probably Europe-wide (there's no point in a French driver being unable to cross the border into Italy or Spain). Bear in mind as of today, these manufacturers haven't even agreed on a standard plug and socket for charging. OK, let's imagine we somehow pull off this diplomatic miracle and get all manufacturers to sign up, now we need the roads.
The picture above is very pretty, but what does it actually show? Ignoring the actual power cables, what we're looking at is rebuilding an entire lane of the motorway. Now, we don't need to install this to every road in the UK, that would be unnecessary and silly, so let's just install it to the "A" roads and the motorways. We don't really need it installed to every mile of these roads either, so let's just aim for 50% or so. In the UK, that's over 15 thousand miles of road. Yes, 15,000 (see here). Wow, that's a lot of roadworks, but it can be done, can't it? Consider the M3. Right about now they should be just finishing the upgrade to "smart motorway" between junctions 2 - 4a. That's 14 (one four) miles where they're effectively replacing the hard shoulder, so it's a good comparison for what's needed for fitting the induction system, digging up one lane. It's taken 19 months to complete and cost £160 million. What do we need to do? Oh yes, 15 thousand miles so that's er... 1696 years of roadworks and a cost of around £170 trillion (I may have rounded these figures a bit).
Of course, you can't effectively use your induction charging car until the induction charging lanes are in place so if my math is correct above, the manufacturers should be getting their first sales by July of 3712, by which time England should have competed in 424 World Cups and may possibly have won one.
OK, this is an argumentum ad absurdum but it's really not that extreme. Even just 300 miles of motorway is going to take decades to install and cost billions. You can argue that a project lasting decades is worthwhile if the results are good, but what's going to happen to EV technology in 30 years? Going right back to the start of this post, the whole push for induction charging is to relieve range anxiety and charging issues we're experiencing today (if you believe the media, which is another story entirely). Are we still going to have those worries in 30 years time? I seriously doubt it. Look at how ranges have improved in just a few years since the introduction of the Tesla S, look at the huge interest in battery technology, exciting inventions almost on the market and think about what may be invented in 30 years that we aren't even thinking about now.
Is the government really going to invest billions of pounds in a project that'll span lifetimes, only to see that it becomes the biggest white elephant ever made? Sorry, it's cool, but it ain't gonna happen.
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