It's bad enough now on a road trip towing a long trailer with a truck and trying to find any gas station along the way, let alone one that you can fit into. I can't imagine how stressful it would to find any place that you can be assured of being able to charge up an electric vehicle. Do you book a "spot" at each planned stop on the trip in advance? Do you rely on an app or locator website? What if you get there and there aren't any charging stations left? How much charge would you leave on the batteries before plugging in again (on a trip).
I used to design electrical systems in all types of buildings. I can't imagine the implications and cost there will be for having to install code required charging stations in buildings. It seems like the primary focus today is on having charging available at work and at home and there isn't much consideration yet to making charging available between cities and towns. Development of EV charging infrastructure, code requirements, etc. is still in it's infancy. This
Canadian Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Guidlines from 2014 and prepared by a consultant in San Francisco is an example. It has a table showing battery capacity and charging times for hybrids and battery EVs from 15 amps @ 120 volts to 85 amps at 240 volts. Would there be uniform code requirements across the US and Canada so you can go anywhere?
I'm not buying into the notion of "green energy" and electric vehicles. Even if your power source happened to be hydroelectric, tremendous amounts of fossil fuel was consumed in the process of building dams and the related infrastructure like transmission lines, roads, etc. Nowadays power utility companies in the US and Canada have interconnected grids and you can buy and sell blocks of power from each other across NA. You may not know if your power is nuclear, coal or hydroelectric.
I'm not buying into the notion of "green energy" and electric vehicles. Even if your power source happened to be hydroelectric, tremendous amounts of fossil fuel was consumed in the process of building dams and the related infrastructure like transmission lines, roads, etc. Nowadays power utility companies in the US and Canada have interconnected grids and you can buy and sell blocks of power from each other across NA. You may not know if your power is nuclear, coal or hydroelectric. I'm not buying into the notion of "green energy" and electric vehicles. Even if your power source happened to be hydroelectric, tremendous amounts of fossil fuel was consumed in the process of building dams and the related infrastructure like transmission lines, roads, etc. Nowadays power utility companies in the US and Canada have interconnected grids and you can buy and sell blocks of power from each other across NA. You may not know if your power is nuclear, coal or hydroelectric.
Where is all the copper going to come from for charging infrastructure and the EVs? Copper is expensive already. What about the environmental implications of the mining and smelting or the effects on human health?
I'm all for going green but the "big picture" of what it takes for an EV to be built and operated doesn't seem to get discussed. I really love our gas guzzling V10 truck and TT but I do feel guilty about contributing to damaging the environment.
