Who would have thought of drones as mobile refueling stations for electric cars?

Amazon apparently. The tech company recently patented a new aerial EV recharging system that will recharge electric cars even when they’re on the road.

As anyone who has driven electric cars knows, they lack the range of gas powered cars. They also take more time to refuel. Over the years, electric car companies have attempted to solve these issues in various ways, from larger battery packs to more efficient recharging stations.

Now Amazon has introduced a new possible solution: Drones that can recharge moving electric cars. The patent application for this system was filed back in 2014, and was only approved by the United States Patent Office in October 2017.

Amazon’s new patent describes a system where electric car drivers will remotely contact a central server whenever they’re running low on power. In response, the server will send out a drone with a supplementary battery pack to catch up with the vehicle to recharge its electricity supply.

The drone and the vehicle will then wirelessly sync up their speed and location at their rendezvous site. The vehicle will deploy a special retractable charger, while the drone will plug itself into the moving vehicle to recharge the vehicle’s electric supply.

Although Amazon’s new patent offers a lot of promise on paper, it’s not without any problems either. One such problem is the range of these drones. Electric cars which are outside the coverage area of the drone refueling stations will not get the service they need.

Another problem is battery density. A drone will need large, powerful motors in order to transport a battery that’s large enough to refuel an electric car. The only problem is that these motors may need to tap into the very same energy they’re carrying just to get to their destination.

Finally, the infrastructure needed to support these drones do not currently exist, particularly in areas where there are no refueling stations for electric vehicles to begin with. Also, even if the infrastructure does exist, maintaining them may be costly, and such costs may prevent electric vehicle recharging drones from attaining the popularity that they deserve.

Despite these problems, it’s clear that Amazon is willing to experiment with new drone technology. Although the aerial EV recharging system is still just a concept, it does offer a few interesting ideas for drone applications, many of which have the potential to solve new problems that arise from the use of electric vehicles.