There is a solution to the problem of the Nissan Leaf, and the short range of electric cars in general (In praise of…, 3 August). Instead of trying to replace petrol engines with electric motors and batteries, why not electrify the roads? By laying a series of conducting rails flush with the road, electric cars fitted with a trailing pickup arm or wheel could travel across Britain without stopping, switching automatically to batteries when changing lanes or coming off onto local roads. A considerable engineering challenge, I agree, but since Victorian engineers laid thousands of miles of railway in very short order, not impossible with modern techniques.
Such roads could still be used by conventional vehicles, until all were electric. Gradually all roads could be converted, as all towns and villages were slowly connected to the electric transmission network. Power use by cars would be metered and monitored, motorists billed and car batteries could be charged while running on the rails.
Tony Cheney
Ipswich, Suffolk
• Your editorial misses the point, particularly in your statement "All you need is somewhere to plug it in". The real drawback is what Jeremy Clarkson identified – 13 hours to charge the car. In energy transfer times, there is no contest: five minutes for the chemical energy of fuel through a pipe, against 13 hours for electrical energy via a small cable – a transfer rate in the megawatt range instead of the maximum 3kW available from a 13A socket. This problem is not likely to be solved until a battery is developed that will charge itself at this rate.
Peter Swinbank
Cardiff
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/03/electric-cars-carbon-emissions
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