Engine swap.

carringb wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
California would be OFF the list. California is now cutting back electricity and asking for voluntary shut downs of electricity AND mandatory shut downs in certain areas. When I see these reports, WHAT about the People and Companies that rely on ELECTRIC vehicles in those areas in California????

California doesn't have an electricity shortage. They have a peak supply-demand imbalance. During they day, they can't use all the power they produce, and the peaking plants they rely on to balance the grid when solar and wind go offline can't ramp up fast enough.

EVs can help with load balancing by temporarily supplying the grid when the sun goes down, until the peaking plants catch up. But they also help by using more power during peak production, so that the slow-responding plants don't have to go offline.

https://thedriven.io/2019/09/20/nissan-inks-major-deal-with-french-utility-to-develop-vehicle-to-grid-smart-charging/

And let's not forget that many of the issue are due to simple inaction by PG&E. Lack of ROW maintenance, lack of power plant PMs, obsolete switchgear, failure to utilize smart-grid production agreements, failure to use predictive demand algorithms... I could go on. None of those issues would go away if everybody tomorrow traded their EV in for a gas-burner.

Lastly, EV owners are often a little better insulated against grid disruptions. Whenever planned blackouts are announced, there's a run on gas that often deplete the stations tanks. By the time they get refilled, the station doesn't have power to run the pumps anymore. EV owners can stay topped-off at home until up until the time power is turned off. And sometimes longer if they have their own array with off-grid support.

Translation: Yes, they have shortages but the shortages tend to be concentrated when people actually want power.

Most of the PG&E issues are a side benefit of the govt micromanaging the utility companies. Utility companies are allowed to hold monopolies (because it would be crazy to build half a dozen parallel power grids) but are then heavily regulated by govt commissions. Those commissions have to approve any PG&E price increases and because they have been subverted for the "green cause" are able to strong arm them into building inefficient solar production along with forcing them to buy from individual property owners solar systems at retail prices...then there is shock and horror when even with some of the highest prices in the country, they can't afford to do basic grid maintenance.