Quote:
Originally Posted by crmalcolm
It's true that current generation capability does not meet the requirements for a large increase in EV use.
However, it must also be considered that - why would electricity generators produce more if the demand is not there?
A snapshot of the last 7 day demand for the UK shows a peak of just over 43GWh, and a low of 20.5GWh. There is no appetite for an increase in generation, so it is not done.
It is also a dangerous model to assume that all cars would charge at the same time, and all draw the maximum current available.
If every ICE car in the UK was to attempt to fill up at the same time, there is not the infrastructure to cope with this.
Electric Vehicle charging is not an 'all at once' situation. There would be a spread of vehicles charging, vehicles charged and vehicles in use - just as there is with ICE vehicles at present.
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There will be a spike at the "end of the day" for the largest numbers of commuters and I'm they have that data already with the general light and power needs changes already in place. What that number would look like with the addition of new load for car charging is up for debate and likely modification based on charging style and voltage needs. I would guess it isn't an unsubstantial amount of draw but would be somewhat simultaneous, people are going to plug their cars in when they get home and are near them most likely. That said, as you mentioned earlier, engineers will solve those problems as they arise. If there's no need for that load now, no changes would be made. More importantly though is CAN those changes be made. I'm guessing there is more than a little extra built in to the systems but how much extra is safety needs and how much can be exploited with infrastructure changes. From what I've gathered most of the US infrastructure needs a massive overhaul to greatly increase the loads and in some cases new power stations needed for some of the estimates of load needed. Now it does appear more than a few energy companies are trying to get ahead of this and want to expand before demand grows, and yes lobby for better rules/discounts for electric cars. I do not think that is an insurmountable challenge at all and the battery life/construction/disposal is the far greater risk for failure in the system than can we generate the power needed.
With my commute currently, 5 miles or so each way, I would love to be in the buying cycle to swap my truck for the Rivian electric truck. A few things stop that from consideration at all. First, to replace my truck is about 80k in terms of equipment and vehicle. Second, the market is limited for me personally, want a truck and frankly for my size a truck is needed, 6'7 (2m) and 325 lb (23 st, 148kg) does not fit in a car. I've tried and it was painful all day in my old CMaxx for work. Finally, honestly other than the Rivian the other proposed options for electric trucks are garbage. The Tesla truck is utter garbage and from some industry discussions I've heard cannot be built in the style shown. The Ford product sounds like they don't want to be realistic and want swing their lower appendages around with made-up towing numbers, last I heard was targeting 15k trailers for a light duty truck. That's garbage and unsafe. Plus it was estimated to weigh almost 10k on its own.