Where is the Electricity going to come to charge EVs ?

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One of my friend, while still on the "free supercharging" plan, drove between San Jose to LA monthly just for fun. He has no problem supercharging his way down and back up, never an issue.

I'd be more worried if I'm driving a Nissan Leaf but Bolt / Volt / Prius Prime / Tesla should be no problem. Just make sure it is a competent EV with liquid cooled battery and support fast charging.

Why drive when you can fly? because of kids, flying medium distance is actually slower, and the luggage check-in and wait and the last mile rental car, etc. 1 super charging to LA is fine. Multi charge to Yellowstone is also fine, people I know did that trip before and the only problem was they have to plan on where to eat and where to break, instead of whenever the kids feel like.
You can take the Volt off that list, since it's a plug in hybrid.
 
The Volt was the same, minus the Atkinson cycle, of course. But the Volt was a SERIES HYBRID, so it would run on strictly battery for the first 40 or 50 miles. Prius isn't designed that way, but many cars today are starting to use thay method.
Prius also has some engine issues that I've never heard about with the Volt, but that's a different issue.
Yes, the X5 xDrive45e is also a series hybrid, as is the Audi Q5 hybrid IIRC.
 
Your post and your attitude seem to be quite negative in tone. You're not the only one on this site that dings EVs. Yes, there's a way to go with the concept, the infrastructure, public acceptance, etc.

We're at the dawn of a new age, and I'm looking forward to seeing it unfold. It's an exciting time, except, perhaps, for those wedded to and having a vested interest in the the status quo and the past. I'm reminded of what it must have been like for my grandparents.

When they were born, and when they came to this country, there was no electricity readily available to the general population, cars had just barely been invented and, really, they were, at best, just experimental. Grandpa Jack never heard of an airplane, much less flew on one, and the radio, rudimentary as it was, had not yet found its way into homes on any scale.

Technology matures, then gives birth to new technology. How many here have used dial telephones, had an ice box instead of a refrigerator, know what a washboard is, much less used one, didn't have indoor plumbing, and lived in a world before plastics. The first few years of my sweeties life were spent without electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. Last time I checked, she was driving a Prius and using electricity produced by her solar panels, and sending emails and "Zooming" to meetings ... remember Skype ... who uses it now?
I wish you could be specific on how you think I am dinging electric vehicles.
I honestly and truly don’t see any of that in my posts.
I think what you may consider a ding is just reality for much of the population.

I think I am just posting facts and much of your posts is more of a vision of how you see the future. I see the future too but I started this thread to bring to discussion what I see by some people as currently ignoring facts and limitations of the electric grid for what they think is going to be wide scale adoption of electric vehicles in the next ten years.

I’m simply stating my point of view that for the time being an EV to most American families will not be the main family vehicle and more of a commuter car and to be quite honest they are more the size of an economy car.

I do not see that changing in any way until the day comes when an electric vehicle can be filled up with energy as fast as a gasoline vehicle.

As far as the dawn of a new age I have no idea what you’re talking about. That is your speculation and vision of what you consider to one of a New Age and you’re discounting what truly was the dawn of the New Age.

The dawn of the new age started with the personal computer and became main stream starting three decades ago.
Main stream computing changed the world. Everything else is just a result of it. Much like electricity change the world before that. That

One can say the dawn of the new age started when electricity started getting distributed to homes.

An electric vehicle is not anyway anything groundbreaking. In fact it’s an improvement on something that was invented 100 years ago.

By the way I am a pretty big fan of Elon Musk and what he stands for, NO, I’m a huge fan but we cannot get political in this forum so let’s not.

I want to repeat I’m enjoying the discussions in this thread and I respect everybody’s opinion and I am not in any way knocking anybody’s opinion. I clearly see how some others feel and I respect that
 
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Sorry you don't have actual data to back up your claims. As for your Camaro, you actually got 15/24 and an average of 18 overall. I'd hardly call that anywhere close to 30.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=11655

Also EPA changed their testing procedure for more real world numbers. You should also know that numbers have gotten worse because we have better 0-60 numbers and more weight. Shave the weight off and slower 0-60 numbers and you'll get better gas mileage numbers. But that doesn't sell in the marketplace. What you're lamenting doesn't existing. Engineering is all about trade offs. Of course if you don't know anything about it, it's easy to cry about how things are worse off today than yesterday.

Wow. First of all, you're the last type I'd care to "back up" my claim with. Visit a Camaro forum, or GM truck forum. Talk to people that can give you numbers that aren't generated by an algorithm sitting in some gov't office somewhere. And as for your internet blog perusing, it is common knowledge that GM has typically understated mileage (and power) for decades.

See a doctor man, for real. Talk about this problem because I'm betting it's got nothing to do with your ignorance of vehicle history. There's some sort of ego conflict going on there.
 
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Wow. First of all, you're the last type I'd care to "back up" my claim with. Visit a Camaro forum, or GM truck forum. Talk to people that can give you numbers that aren't generated by an algorithm sitting in some gov't office somewhere. And as for your internet blog perusing, it is common knowledge that GM has typically understated mileage (and power) for decades.

See a doctor man, for real. Talk about this problem because I'm betting it's got nothing to do with your ignorance of vehicle history. There's some sort of ego conflict going on there.
I'm not surprised at your lack of attention to detail. It's the EPA numbers, not some random internet blog. And understating mileage and power doesn't do much for gas mileage. Those are the numbers that you want to be the highest due to CAFE reasons and fines.

Not an ego conflict, you're basically spewing misinformation and I'm calling you out on it. That's why you can't defend anything you say because none of it is based on actual facts. Funny how if you were even remotely correct, there'd be posts supporting your claim, but there are none. Going toward personal attacks is a typically weak response to defect from the fact that you have none.

I backed up my case with facts. You didn't. End of story.
 
Ideally nuclear. Too cheap to meter
It’s funny how the safest places in the country to locate a reactor have never and likely will never have a planet while the most dangerous regions have the most

You are correct.

I've heard California is already telling people not to charge, the grid can't handle it.

But, hey...
That’s because they know they can’t tell them to shut off the ac
 
Sorry I'm going by real world experience, not internetz. '95 Camaro z28 6 speed, '89-mid 2000's fullsize GM's with the 5.7. This is limited to my personal experiences, so surely I'm not the only person on the globe to have miraculously ended up with the only two lines of vehicles that could get close to 30. I just don't think of myself as a lucky person in that regard.

To your point not city driving and takes some light throttle, but 30 years ago? Even a 20 mpg fullsize V8 vehicle will make a logical person question why we haven't come further. Come on, we should be over that hump easy without all the trickery. Those that have had experience with the above era GM's in particular know today's mpg ratings don't make sense.

And there's a lot more plastic on vehicles now where metal was decades ago, and far more advanced tuning. I mean vehicles are now being mortgaged and in some aspects perform worse than they did.

Sorry you're inexperienced on both counts.
And that 5.7 in 1995 made a whopping 275HP. Similar sized engines are now pushing 400hp and get mid 20’s for fuel economy, despite the cars being heavier. I’ve gotten 27mpg out of a Charger R/T without really trying.
 
Ideally nuclear. Too cheap to meter
Realistically speaking, if it is "too cheap to meter":

1) There will be no incentive to use it efficiently, so you will end up using a lot, and it will cost a moderate amount and you still have to meter it.
2) There will be overhead to transport it, my electricity is now 50% transmission 50% generation
3) The investment, the fix cost, to build these reactors, need a profit or subsidy to happen, so it needs to be paid back and it will just be too cheap for fuel. Like solar is not free if you factor in investment and the panel, just no fuel cost.

I do think in the future people will move to where energy is cheap instead of where farming is efficient or where they can get clean water like the old days.
 
The electric companies are going to start throttling the availability of power. Power on demand (ie you can consume as much power as you can financially afford and the distribution will handle) will be no longer be an option. The tech is out there to remote monitor and control. It would just have to be adopted into the codes and standards. Bottom line, the electric in the future will be able to say “no power for you!”

Get ready, it is coming like or not.
 
There has been a *lot* of progress in the last couple of years on Fusion, and it's well within reach now with refinements. The last 12 months alone has seen massive progress, they're getting there. Besides that, I think increasing wind/solar with batteries or pumped gravity storage hydro will supplement new nuclear, whether in large or small modular reactor form are the way forward. France just announced a bunch of new commercial power reactors, and China/India have been building a bunch for years, time for us to get onboard.
Yes, Nuclear is the answer, to be clear for others who may not know, France announced a large undertaking to get new Nuclear plants built after previous administration was planning to reduce nuclear, they have gone the other way and extended the time line to shut down plants.
As it is right now, 70% of Frances electric power comes from Nuclear.
China and India blowing right past the USA too, the E/U is making plans to ramp up building nuclear plants.

The USA? nothing but Crickets. My last hopes were dashed right here in South Carolina, we had two new nuclear plants under construction, billions spent, construction stopped because of mis- management AND primarily incompetence by the reactor supplier Westinghouse/Toshiba.

Ok, onto wind power, to me is laughable, the same special interests that made it impossible to get nuclear power plants up and running endorsing wind power is laughable. Every oil spill we ever saw on TV for decades showed a few hundred birds or even a thousand birds wallowing and dying in oil. Yet, the media doesnt show photos of the wind farms and the 10's of thousands of migrating birds that are killed in the wind fields every year in the USA.. go figure .. *LOL*
(no politics)
 
If you charge every night you could easily make do with a 16-amp 240V EVSE on a 20A circuit. My Volt only has a 13 amp, 240V (3.3kW) charger on it and in 4 hours that adds 40 miles of range.

That's about the same power consumption as a 2-ton central air conditioner.

And it's probably nicer to the grid to charge more often at a slower rate.
You Volt has a gasoline engine and is a hybrid
 
You have a myopic view of the big picture, focusing on a small part of the overall situation. Your thinking is in the past, your vision is rearward focused.

It seems many naysayers want everything now, and don't seem to acknowledge that this move to electric and alternative energy is an evolving process. Tomorrow will be better, and next week, better yet.

They scoffed at the Wright Brothers, and now we're headed to Mars and living in space; Edison tried to halt electricity's progress, but he was run over by the ideas and skill of Westinghouse; Nikola Tesla was considered by some to be a madman, now we're driving around in cars that carry his name.
This is the part that gets me. Pro alternative energy people drive me nuts about this some times. Using words "rearward focused" ect ect
How about someone at the other end of the spectrum who maybe nothing more than a dreamer, void of reality?

The Wright Bros? Really? Mars? Edison? Skill of Westinghouse? NO current alternative energy compares to any of these.
You talking about an electric car? Doesnt compare, still works on the same principle. Solar power? Doesnt compare to Nuclear
Westinghouse? Failed 3 years ago to build new new Nuclear power plants in South Carolina at a cost of BILLIONS to the rate payers AFTER construction was running for YEARS.

Im all for alternative energy but in the USA there are too many groups stopping production of power with nuclear plants. Its the cleanest source of power for Mother Earth (for you earth huggers) *LOL*

Jsut come of with a real solution instead of words and how that solution will be implemented, this is not rearward focused, its proper planning.
 
Is California still having their rolling blackouts?
Not now; the rolling blackouts are in the very hottest summer days. In 2021, an extreme heat wave led to excessive demand, while resource planning targets under a changing power supply have not kept up with supply-demand, and some market practices exacerbated the supply issues.

As temperatures continue to rise, I fully expect some areas to experience problems.
 
Not now; the rolling blackouts are in the very hottest summer days. In 2021, an extreme heat wave led to excessive demand, while resource planning targets under a changing power supply have not kept up with supply-demand, and some market practices exacerbated the supply issues.

As temperatures continue to rise, I fully expect some areas to experience problems.

I remember the big rolling blackouts of that type since maybe 20+ years ago. And that was due to the deregulated electricity market, where it seemed like companies were gaming the system - taking turns having shutdowns which then spiked the price up.

Other than a short blip, most recent shutdowns seemed to be like the ones that PG&E and Southern California Edison were having. They called them "public safety shutdowns", as there wasn't really a supply/demand imbalance. Their rationale was that there was a high risk of electricity-sparked wildfire during extreme drought conditions.
 
I remember the big rolling blackouts of that type since maybe 20+ years ago. And that was due to the deregulated electricity market, where it seemed like companies were gaming the system - taking turns having shutdowns which then spiked the price up.

Other than a short blip, most recent shutdowns seemed to be like the ones that PG&E and Southern California Edison were having. They called them "public safety shutdowns", as there wasn't really a supply/demand imbalance. Their rationale was that there was a high risk of electricity-sparked wildfire during extreme drought conditions.
The aging PG&E infrastructure is certainly dangerous; not just the power lines. Look at the deadly San Bruno gas line explosion of a few years back. The PUC has proven to be of little help as well.
But there is absolutely a demand vs supply imbalance due to a topic deemed verboten on this forum. The numbers don't lie.
 
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