Owners of electric cars are probably painfully aware that unlike regular cars, finding a charging station for your vehicle isn’t as easy as the stations aren’t nearly as ubiquitous compared to gas stations. This means that you will need to plan your journey along routes where there will be EV charging stations available.
However BMW wants to make your life easier. The company has recently announced an initiative where they will turn street lamps into EV charging stations. Given that there are already plenty of street lamps, this should solve the issue of availability. Dubbed Light & Charge, this initiative was actually announced last year but this is the first time the company is putting it to the test.
The idea was shown off for the first time at the Low Carbon Oxford Week in the UK. The design of the lamp itself will be modular in nature and can be fitted with two or four LEDs depending on how busy the area is. It will come with standard controls for the lights where it can be automatically turned on or off based on the time of day.
It will also be outfitted with a standard EV connector so that other electric cars not of the BMW make will be able to take advantage of the charging by swiping their card. Of course these lamps won’t be installed all over the place and are mainly targeted at places where there are plenty of parking spots nearby.