BMW said that it is developing street lights that come with sockets that can charge up electric cars, with a pilot run for the project to be launched next year in Munich.
The company said that it had developed two prototypes of its "Light and Charge" street lights, which will feature a combination of efficient LEDs, or light emitting diodes, with BMW's ChargeNow charging stations to be used for electric vehicles.
"Seamless charging infrastructure is essential if we want to see more electric vehicles on the road in our cities in the future," said BMW Board of Management member Peter Schwarzenbauer.
The pilot run in Munich will be using the current lighting networks installed by local authorities. The charging street lights will be set up by grafting the lights directly onto the street light infrastructure of the city.
BMW added that the "Light and Charge" street lights can be used as a charging station by an unlimited number of drivers at the same, without taking into account the model of the electric vehicle or that of the electricity provider.
The drivers of the cars will be using a mobile phone app to pay for the usage of the charging station.
Two prototypes of the street lights have already been installed at the front of the headquarters of the company.
BMW's "Light and Charge" street lights project folds into the company's push for electric vehicles, as BMW has also produced some of the leading electric cars in the industry, including the i3 city car and the i8 hybrid car.
Electric cars, however, have not gained enough popularity to lead to widespread usage. Some of the major factors that have stunted the growth of the industry are the limited operation range of the vehicles due to a limited battery life, the low number of charging stations worldwide, and the length of time to have an electric vehicle fully recharged.
In order to address these issues, BMW, along with other manufacturers of electric vehicles, are constantly expanding their knowledge on electric vehicles and the related technology that goes with the cars, in an attempt to make the electric vehicles more appealing to the public.
Aside from the project, BMW has also made investments in software and applications that will provide assistance to electric car driver, such as when looking for open parking spaces and nearby charging stations.
BMW has even reached out to Tesla Motors, a rival in the industry, for a discussion on increasing the availability of charging stations for electric vehicles, which will be beneficial to the industry as a whole.
