If you use an electric toothbrush, chances are good that you don’t have to plug it in to recharge it. Instead, you simply place it on a post in the base of the charging stand, and the toothbrush tops itself off via electromagnetic inductive charging. If that works to recharge a toothbrush, or a cell phone, why can’t the same idea be applied to electric cars->ke1030?

This is the exact question being raised by HaloIPT, a British firm that will demonstrate electromagnetic inductive charging for electric cars at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show->ke235. The concept is relatively simple: the driver of an electric car equipped with Halo IPT’s system parks his car atop a rubber charging mat, which is plugged into a charging station nearby. The mat and the car communicate via Bluetooth to test the connection and ensure the car is parked properly. Once the hand-off is given, charging begins with no additional action required on the part of the driver.

Full story after the jump.

Today, such a system could be rolled out to homes and businesses, and it would ensure that EV drivers never forget to plug in and charge their cars. That’s interesting, but hardly revolutionary. On the other hand, the technology has the potential of being ground-breaking if it can be applied to roads and highways. If an EV driver can recharge his car while driving, courtesy of an inductive-charging equipped highway, the issue of limited range from electric vehicles becomes moot.

We’re still years (or possibly decades) away from that point, and implementation of such a technology requires that the electric car become much more mainstream than it is today. There’s the issue of cost to address as well, including both the creation of inductive-charging-equipped roads, and the cost of electricity to charge EVs driving on them. Like the Segway Human Transporter, this technology may turn out to be a bust. On the other hand, this could well be the basis of motorized transportation in the 22nd century.