Skip to main content

BMW tests street light EV charger

BMW is to run a pilot project in Munich to test a newly-developed an electric car charging station which the company says can be can be grafted straight onto the existing local authority street lighting infrastructure. BMW said it has made two prototype ‘Light and Charge’ street lights which combine efficient light emitting diodes (LED) with the company's ChargeNow recharging stations for electric cars. "Seamless charging infrastructure is essential if we want to see more electric vehicles on the road
November 11, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
1731 BMW is to run a pilot project in Munich to test a newly-developed an electric car charging station which the company says can be can be grafted straight onto the existing local authority street lighting infrastructure.

BMW said it has made two prototype ‘Light and Charge’ street lights which combine efficient light emitting diodes (LED) with the company's ChargeNow recharging stations for electric cars.

"Seamless charging infrastructure is essential if we want to see more electric vehicles on the road in our cities in the future," Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the Board of Management of BMW, said.

The company claims the charging stations can be used by as many drivers as possible, regardless of vehicle model and electricity provider.

Two street lights are already installed in front of the BMW headquarters. Drivers will be able to pay to charge their cars via a mobile phone app.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Connected vehicle trials get big backing from USDOT
    March 14, 2016
    Connected vehicle technology will emerge as a sustainable reality at three sites in the US over the next four years. Jon Masters reports. Advocates of connected vehicle (CV) technology have received a welcome boost from news that the US government has committed a further $4 billion towards automated vehicle research and CV technology. This comes hot on the heels of the US Department of Transportation’s $42 million CV pilot pledge in October last year.
  • Texas A&M offer free campus transport testing
    October 27, 2016
    Free evaluation and testing of transportation systems and products might seem too good to be true - but it isn’t. Colin Sowman reports. Texas A&M University is offering to host transport technology demonstrations and research projects free of charge at its Main and newly-renamed Rellis campuses. The initiative’s aim is to encourage those with technologies that could improve transportation to bring their products, systems and ideas to Texas A&M’s campus where they can be evaluated, tested and demonstrated.
  • Historic milestone for EVs claimed
    April 17, 2012
    Utah State University Research Foundation's Energy Dynamics Laboratory has announced that it has operated the first high-power, high-efficiency wireless power transfer system capable of transferring enough energy to quickly charge an electric vehicle. The lightweight, low-profile system demonstrated 90 per cent electrical transfer efficiency of five kilowatts over an air gap of 10 inches. The demonstration at EDL's North Logan, Utah, facility further validates that electric vehicles can efficiently be charg
  • Pioneering sensors collect weather data from moving vehicles
    January 20, 2012
    ITS International contributing editor David Crawford foresees the vehicle as 'sentinel being'