Maybe I'm not thinking Out Of The Box enough but how would different providers advertise their product/prices/locations? Different power providers in the same area would want those things displayed because they would likely choose to compete in the same high-traffic areas, right? So they would want signs similar to gas station ones, I would think. How would they work that out without messing with the environmental aesthetic you would gain from meter-sized hook-ups?

That's a good question, Terra Verde.

Maybe the dynamic will change completely and that won't be a problem, but one way I could imagine is that could could be equipped with short-range wireless detectors (bluetooth?) that would tell you what the rates are for the chargers in the area.

Or maybe by then GPS navigation will be so ubiquitous (like cell phones now) that information will be displayed there.

London provides free charging for electric cars and it is system similar to the one above. I don't use it, but combined with the lack of congestion charges, it is a huge incentive to purchase an electric car, if you are living in London.

Cheers!

So I drive to work, plug in and walk away. Then some joker walks by and unplugs me. I come out several hours later to find I'm still on E. There is no fast charge option and I'm stuck where I'm at for hours waiting to juice up.

Pure electric is gonna need security. (at least the Volt will have a gas back-up option).

-Lego

What if somebody runs over it by accident? Or some vandals bash it?

Like Legodragonxp said, there needs to be some more security to make these stations secure.

Similar designs were used back in the first electric car boom, before the turn into th e20th century. You can see a picture of one in Edwin Black's _Internal Combustion_.

see now i thought it was the offpeak power we were meant to be using that would allow us to not build power plants.

i think this needs to be constrained heavily - that all day time charge stations should be forced to offset carbon or draw from renewables. just like you pay more for you coke from a vending machine than at home, youd do so from these stations as well.

theyd already have the infastructure to handle the indirect transferal renewbals for these. but governments would have to lay the law to enforce this and help create an green power industry to statisify this need.

they should be doing this now before they bother putting all this in, else like biofuels we will start leaning too heavily on coal and not be able to shift away easily.

vandals can key your car not just unplug it, if it gets kicked out then it shouldnt charge you for it, with mobile phones and stuff, they could have the system SMS you if your car isnt going to be full when you get back. the charge station needs to be allowed the smarts to see the level of the car. this needs to be thought out ahead. planning and this stuff is a snap to resolve.

Smart idea. Systems like this could alleviate many of the concerns the public has about electric vehicles. The infrastructure itself; and more specifically finding someone who will pay for it may be challenging, but this is certainly an important and impressive concept.

if you can, and they are easy to remove and replace, perhaps there can be battery stations, like there are gas stations. you exchange the battery like you would a propane tank for the BBQ, and since you can recharge them, all the stations are equiped with recharges so they are always stocked. as far as price, i would imagine that would vary from state to state.
most likley according to the local electric companies. but it might also reduce the need for security in ares where people live in cities and rented space and on highways for travelers.
what would the top speed be for one of these cars?