So basically, we need to build more infrastructure for EVs?
Sorta like what was built for ICE vehicles? The distillery units that extract petrol/diesel, the ships that transport it (where applicable), the holding tanks they unload into, the network of fuel trucks that distribute it to the thousands of petrol stations?
Yeah, well, colour me shocked that a lack of infrastructure right now makes using EVs challenging right now. I mean, only four charging spots in that town, but how many bowsers are in that town?
EV infra is a classic chicken and egg problem, while EV ownership rates are low, there's minimal incentive to build the infrastructure.
And poor infrastructure makes purchasing an EV an exercise in risk analysis that harms uptake.
The term infrastructure here is really carrying a lot of weight.
The challenges of supporting a nation of EV is entirely different than gasoline/diesel. Storage of electricity isn't as simple as burrying a large tank, and when everyone stops for gas at the same time it has no impact on the electric grid.
We already have growing pains in our electric grid, those would only get worse with surging use as vehicles charge. If the existing grid may not work and storage is impractical, what's left?
The grid has a "duck curve", which means there is a lot of spare capacity outside of peak hours. And moving EV charging out of the peak hours is doable.
Many charging stations already have batteries on site, because it lets them use cheaper electricity and/or provide charging speeds faster than their grid connection.
EVs used for commuting are very flexible with their charging times. They can automatically delay/schedule charge times. Median US commute (35mi) requires charging about once a week. People who can't charge at home could charge at work (such low-speed chargers are relatively cheap and easy to install).
Yep, those are all totally fair points. I haven't run the math and tried to model it out so my opinion is definitely a combination of napkin math and gut feel
I would be surprised if the grid + new battery storage could handle so much peak-y demand being added to it, but I've been surprised before!
> [Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm's] advance team realized there weren't going to be enough plugs to go around... So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy... a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle... called the police
Benefit analysis:
Global carbon emissions, US share (2021)[1]: 14%
..Transportation sector[2]: 28%
....Light-duty vehicles[3,4]: 58%
......Electricity, non-hydrocarbon sources[5]: 40%
It might be less than 1% globally, but moving from gas cars to electric has the potential to lower the US carbon emissions by more than 16%, according to your numbers.
Why isn't there a standard for swappable batteries in electric vehicles? You could have stations like petrol has, pull up, swap out your battery for a fully charged one and be on the move again in seconds.
Swappable batteries inherently would come with compromises. The biggest of which is that swapping batteries means you get a battery of unknown health. Nobody wants that. Also it inherently limits design sizing. Batteries already try to cram every single cell into their packaging, which would have to be reduced by a swappable battery system.
Why would it be unknown? The charging system could directly measure its health and confirm its within nominal specs. Plus you only need the new battery to be good for the duration of one trip. There’s always a new one around the corner.
It’s like fretting about the quality of one tank of gas. In the long term it’s meaningless because it’s a fleeting problem and will just remedy itself on the next fill up.
Batteries have a given lifespan and number of cycles. If my swapped battery isn't either the same mileage or better, then I'm literally degrading the quality of my car by swapping batteries. I have no guarantees I'd get the same one back on the return trip.
This is equivalent to swapping a motor in a gasoline car, not the gas itself. What happens if I swap to a motor that has 100k miles on it on my brand new car? What about one that was poorly maintained (the EV equivalent would be... discharged to low SoC, kept at high SoC often, charged only using DCFC, etc)? You can't detect all of these things or directly measure them, but just like changing the oil too infrequently in a motor they do damage the battery over time.
If somehow you could actually always support 'a next battery swap fixes it', then you would have to charge an extremely high cost for such battery swap. There's no way around that.
It's been done successfully for motorbikes (gogoro).
Nio has swapping stations for cars, but they take over 5 minutes for a swap.
Automakers are looking to make batteries a structural component (save weight), and want to make batteries lower-profile to avoid raising floor higher (otherwise seating position or headroom loses). So removable batteries are a trade-off.
OTOH higher-end BEVs can charge to 80% under 20 minutes.
So the speed difference is getting smaller, and probably it's easier and cheaper to just roll with charging.
> [Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm's] advance team realized there weren't going to be enough plugs to go around... So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy... a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle... called the police
THis is abhorent, disgusting behavior! I'm not sure it's a police matter, but I hope the woman that got blocked out of a charging spot can, with the cooperation of the owner of the charger and the private land it was on, sue the Department of Energy.
Sorta like what was built for ICE vehicles? The distillery units that extract petrol/diesel, the ships that transport it (where applicable), the holding tanks they unload into, the network of fuel trucks that distribute it to the thousands of petrol stations?
Yeah, well, colour me shocked that a lack of infrastructure right now makes using EVs challenging right now. I mean, only four charging spots in that town, but how many bowsers are in that town?
EV infra is a classic chicken and egg problem, while EV ownership rates are low, there's minimal incentive to build the infrastructure.
And poor infrastructure makes purchasing an EV an exercise in risk analysis that harms uptake.