Electric Vehicles Planned for Development

Officials of Southern California Edison Co. and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced plans Wednesday to build an experimental roadway on which specially designed electric vehicles could draw their power from cables buried in the pavement.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who was present for Wednesday’s announcement at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, said the technology involved in the proposed 1,000-foot “powered roadway” could go a long way toward cleaning the smog out of the area’s skies.

The two utilities said they have committed $1 million each for the demonstration project to be built in the proposed Playa Vista development on former Hughes Aircraft Co. property between Westchester and Marina del Rey.

The project, which is expected to be operational by the end of the year, would consist of electric cables buried along a 1,000-foot section of a 5,000-foot roadway.

Two modified vans and a specially designed passenger bus would be the only vehicles that could use the project’s magnetic-induction charging system.

The roadway would resemble a normal street, but the specially equipped electric vehicles would be able to draw the current from the cable through a magnetic process, without any part of the vehicle, except the tires, in physical contact with the road.

The system would allow the vehicles to run on the road, while recharging their batteries from the cable, and continue running after leaving the special street, officials said.

Galanter called it “one of the most exciting transportation technologies to come along. It’s versatile enough to work in cars, vans, buses or even larger systems, and its clean enough that it could significantly improve air quality.”

Galanter said the system would cut pollution by 98% compared to a gasoline-powered car.

Such a system, if expanded, could help make electric vehicles more practical by extending the range they could travel without recharging their batteries.

“Our community faces its greatest environmental challenge from automobile pollution,” Edison Vice President Robert Dietch said. “This electric roadway project is designed to address that challenge by improving air quality while protecting the mobility that has become so necessary to live and work in Southern California.”

The roadway site is being provided by Maguire Thomas Partners, developer of the Playa Vista project. Other participants include the Electric Power Research Institute, Caltrans and the Southern California Assn. of Governments.