SPRey wrote:
Supply Demand. There are about 300 million vehicles registered in USA. Is there enough power generation capacity (supply) to meet the demand for America to recharge 300 million EVs? Or even 100 million? Or even 50 million? As of 2019 about 1.5 million EVs have been sold, with about half in California.
California is the 3rd largest electricity producer--behind Texas and Florida, and #1 in solar, geothermal and biomass) has rolling blackouts every summer because the demand for electricity exceeds production.
No electricity = no EV
BC hydro has or had on their website a good breakdown of some of these issues. Basically they explain that if overnight every private light vehicle, (pickups, cars, SUV’s) were to become EV’s overnight the additional load on the grid would go up 19 percent. Since the bulk of the transition is expected to take 30 years they anticipate less than 1 percent loss increase per year for 30 years.
They also anticipate no neighbourhood level issues as it is a slow transition. And the reality most people can have their charging needs filled with a standard 15 amp 120 volt socket. We did it for the first two years of EV ownership. Most commutes are shorter than 50 km and that takes about 8 kw. An easy overnight charge on any 120 volt 15 amp socket.
