quote:

Converting the nation’s fleet of automobiles and trucks to electric power is a critical piece of the battle against climate change. The Biden administration wants to see them account for half of all sales by 2030, and New York state has enacted a ban on the sale of internal combustion cars and trucks starting in 2035.

But making America’s cars go electric is no longer primarily a story about building the cars. Against this ambitious backdrop, America’s electric grid will be sorely challenged by the need to deliver clean power to those cars. Today, though, it barely functions in times of ordinary stress, and fails altogether too often for comfort, as widespread blackouts in California, Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere have shown.

“We got to talk about the grid,” said Gil Quiniones, head of a state agency called the New York Power Authority. “Otherwise we’ll be caught flat-footed.”

Non-paywall version:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weat...99t-ready/ar-AAPsPcg

Original article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com...hicles-grid-upgrade/

I was walking through the Earls Court neighborhood and noticed several Teslas parked on the street. It's the kind of city neighborhood where the only parking is on-street parking. There are many, many similar neighborhoods in my own city. It got me to wondering... how do those people charge their EVs? If you can't plug it in overnight, how do you keep it charged up?

Same way you fill your car up. You go to the charging stations. It's not as convenient yet, but it's growing.

https://www.tesla.com/findus?v...ork%2C%20NY%2C%20USA

Still, WTG's article make a very good point. A charging station, even one in your garage, takes a lot more amps than your house electric is capable of. that's going to be one hell of a lot of power on the grid.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Still, WTG's article make a very good point. A charging station, even one in your garage, takes a lot more amps than your house electric is capable of. that's going to be one hell of a lot of power on the grid.

Most houses have ample electrical capacity to run a car charger. Even Tesla's fastest charger is only 50 amps, and with adapters you can charge them more slowly on smaller circuits ranging all the way down to a standard 20A receptacle circuit.

The problem arises when there are a lot of houses on the same street that all have chargers. Suddenly a residential power line that serves 10 houses and has probably never seen more than 150 amps total, even with A/C's running, is going to be seeing 300 - 400 amps when every charger is running. A lot of those service lines are not going to be able to handle the load.

The problem cascades upward from there.

Steve's post made me think of my situation and that of my neighbor with the Tesla. This is just the
sort of place that could have a Tesla in every garage. They would
all be charging on Friday and Saturday night to be ready to go to the ski areas
and sit in the cold all day.

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:
I was walking through the Earls Court neighborhood and noticed several Teslas parked on the street. It's the kind of city neighborhood where the only parking is on-street parking. There are many, many similar neighborhoods in my own city. It got me to wondering... how do those people charge their EVs? If you can't plug it in overnight, how do you keep it charged up?

Nobody would buy an electric car if they didn’t have a garage or car port where they can recharge the battery.

An electric car owner can’t run a long extension cord from his house to his parked car on the street. It would be impractical and hazardous as someone could trip over the cord.

Public charging stations is an option. It’s possible that an electric car owner works at a car dealership and he can charge it up there. As I once stated, some electric cars have a 480 Volt receptacle that allows a very fast charge in addition to the 110 V/220V receptacle. The Nissan Leaf has it. I don’t know if Teslas have it. Car dealerships have 480 Volt chargers to give customers a quick charge so they can get home. They don’t want cars sitting in their lots for hours charging up.

Seems to me a bit of AI is in order... and I'd be surprised if it hasn't been done already. Your car and your charger learn your driving habits. And you can override them if you are planning to take a trip.

You plug your car in when you get home. That starts a 10 or 15 amp charge, a little more than a toaster draws. Your charger communicates with the power station. Everyone else's chargers in your neighborhood do the same. At 10:00 pm or so, everyone is headed to bed, they're done cooking and ironing and stuff, then the power station tells the chargers they can draw more juice. If an area starts to overdraw, the people who typically plug in their cars when they get to work will dial back some and give priority to those who rely more on at-home charging.

Of course, this would require the cooperation of all of the different makers of cars and chargers. From what I've read, Tesla does not play well with others.

Let me know when I get my Nobel prize for suggesting this.

About five years ago I met a guy who took an old Geo Metro, ripped out the engine, and turned it into an EV. He also covered his house in solar panels and put in a bank a batteries. Only rarely did he have to draw power from the grid if it was overcast and gloomy for several days in a row.

He said that since he did all this, the only expense he's had for the car is tires. That's it.

Of course that creates a new issue. At least in this state, there is a per-gallon gasoline tax that pays for road construction and maintenance. EVs do not contribute anything to this, but they use the roads. I think the state has added a $100 a year surcharge on license fees for EVs. But the guy with the converted Geo Metro is flying under the radar on that.

We have a charger in our garage. We paid to have it installed on a 240V circuit. So far the house hasn't blown up. Going on 3 years and counting...

As an aside, we finally traded in our ancient Lexus 400H for a new RAV4 Prime (PHEV). The electric range is about 45 miles. On the plus side, it's an electric car for all of my local drives, errands, back and forth to work. On the negative side, that's 95% of all my driving. I The last time I bought gas for it was in mid-July, in Boise or maybe La Grande, OR.

Do I have to worry about "stale" gas?

On topic (kinda)- we're looking at condominiums/apartments, etc., for downsizing. It's becoming more and more common for housing complexes to have a few charging stations available in their parking garages.

I've been turned off by Elon Musk's politics. The last straw was when Tesla announced that they were moving their headquarters TO Texas.

No Tesla for me.

My opinion: I wouldn't be buying Tesla car stock (I'm actually not sure if they have separate stocks for their different businesses, tbh.)

Teslas have all sorts of issues with finishes, not meeting delivery dates and customer service that is totally atrocious. At the same time, there are far more 100% electric cars available now, without those problems. I only see the electric car options increasing, along with the range.

I say this as a Tesla owner.

Related:
https://www.usatoday.com/story...as-study/6154204001/

Real world costs and issues with charging:driving an all electric vehicle.

Good info. Thanks for posting it.