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Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

theguardian.com

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Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#341

Post by tw04 »

yongjik wrote: post #279
tw04 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't see how that works when you're talking EVERYONE charging. Here's a quick example from New England in 2010: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=830 During "peak" hours they're using roughly 17Gw total, and during off-peak, it's at 15Gw so we've only got 2Gw total to buffer electric cars charging. Feel free to tell me how my math is wrong, but let's assume worst case scenario: a tesla charger…

2021 Tesla Model S has a 100kW battery and 402-mi range. I searched for "average driving miles per year" and Google says 13,500 miles - assuming this, we have about 37 miles per day, which would mean our Tesla S only needs to charge 9.2kW every day. If they're sitting on a charger 10 hours per day, they can take a leisurely 920W per vehicle (less than a good hair dryer), not 11.5kW.

I'm not sure I agree with that math for a number of reasons. For starters if you want to go strictly by averages, the average household has two cars, so your 9.2kW goes to 18.4kW out of the gate. Additionally that average includes teenagers which drives the mileage down, but households with teens tend to have more cars, so that means either they come out of the average or the 18.4 jumps to 27.6kW/day.

The average household uses <1200kWh per month. Adding another 18kW per day increases power usage by almost 50%, which goes back to: the national power grid doesn't have anywhere near 50% spare capacity.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#342

Post by lmm »

brewdad wrote: post #332
resonantjacket5 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit off topic, but your example of parking spots probably isn't the best. There's been some calls to lower the kinda ludicrous parking requirements mandated by local authorities

If the efforts to reduce parking requirements succeed, you can be sure that more units will be built with no parking lots at all (Profit$). We are seeing this in Portland where 20 unit apartment buildings are getting built with zero parking (or maybe 10 spaces available for additional rent). The end result, for now at least, is 30-40 more cars parked in the surrounding streets.

I lived in London where new buildings are required to be zero parking - the thinking is that the roads are already congested enough and so anything that encourages bringing more cars in is bad for the city. It's a pretty good approach IMO, though I guess you need to combine it with something like Tokyo's rule that you can't buy a car unless you can show you have a parking space to register it to.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#343

Post by cptskippy »

core-questions wrote: post #296
cptskippy wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably right. In the US there's generally two systems, flat-rate or time-of-use. A lot of people on time-of-use plans are installing battery backups and/or solar to avoid the peak charges. I have a Tesla solar/powerwall setup that's configured for cost savings and it decided that today 100% of solar was going to be back fed to the grid and we've been running 100% off the batteries. Usually the system just sw…

> Usually the system just switches to batteries during peak. You'd think you'd want to be using them more often - is it just that there's no grid demand for the power? My hope is that the addition of a huge number of batteries to the grid, in the form of all these EVs, actually adds to its capacity, since most people won't be running them down to 0 and the software to optimize when to charge vs. when to power the gri…

I don't know that any EV is capable of providing power from its charge port, but that would be helpful for stranded vehicles.

Even if my EV could push power to the grid, I'm not sure I would want it too. It would require me to keep my EV plugged in and topped off which isn't good for the batteries. Currently both my EVs are sitting at around 50% unplugged.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#344

Post by TedShiller »

jiggawatts wrote: post #246

My problem is renting apartments. If you ask the strata or the building managers about charging points in the carpark, they look at you like you're speaking Klingon. This is true of even very recently completed buildings in well-off areas of relatively wealthy western countries. Heck, I just walked past three Teslas in my building's car park, one of which is new and wasn't there last week! Do people... not plan ahead…

The problem is actually lithium batteries. Mining that material destroys the earth.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#345

Post by bluGill »

dheera wrote: post #330
mywittyname wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A staggering amount of buildings are built to code, and nothing more. If code says that there needs to be 1.5 parking spaces per bedroom for the complex, and the complex has 80 bedrooms, you can bet there will be 120 parking spots. Apartment managers will be dragged kicking and screaming into offering chargers for cars. The best way to get chargers into apartment buildings is going to be a local mandate that they hav…

> A staggering amount of buildings are built to code A staggering amount of buildings are also NOT built to code. My smoke detector failed and isn't getting replaced for a whole week. My heater makes scraping noises every time it starts and maintainence thinks it's normal. Smack in the middle of Silicon Valley. But this is the best of what I could afford. It's decent. It's clean. Everything else I saw at my budget wa…

The valley is well known for not building enough, thus allowing this to happen. You can find apartments like that in any city, but it will be the bad part of town and rent will be in the 500 range.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#346

Post by yks »

dheera wrote: post #330
mywittyname wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A staggering amount of buildings are built to code, and nothing more. If code says that there needs to be 1.5 parking spaces per bedroom for the complex, and the complex has 80 bedrooms, you can bet there will be 120 parking spots. Apartment managers will be dragged kicking and screaming into offering chargers for cars. The best way to get chargers into apartment buildings is going to be a local mandate that they hav…

> A staggering amount of buildings are built to code A staggering amount of buildings are also NOT built to code. My smoke detector failed and isn't getting replaced for a whole week. My heater makes scraping noises every time it starts and maintainence thinks it's normal. Smack in the middle of Silicon Valley. But this is the best of what I could afford. It's decent. It's clean. Everything else I saw at my budget wa…

housing in the US is just not that great for the thing right in the center of the national psyche: cookie cutter designs with no attention to the environment, low-quality constructions, apartments with zero soundproofing (no wonder everyone wants a house) and then the laws that force people to keep antiquated structures around for way longer than reasonable.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#347

Post by addandsubtract »

rconti wrote: post #281
bosie wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the problem with card payments in germany for non-germans?

Credit cards are not widely accepted in Germany. Germans generally use cash or EC/Maesto debit cards, and you can't get an EC card if you're not an EU resident with an EU bank account (which can be hard for Americans, and, to a lesser extent, any foreigner, I'm sure). I used to have a Maestro-branded debit card (in the US) when I was younger. I have no idea if it's the same system and/or if they're compatible. I chec…

I've been paying with my phone using Google Pay connected to PayPal for the past year. It works basically everywhere, except for places that only take cash.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#348

Post by Wowfunhappy »

brewdad wrote: post #332
resonantjacket5 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit off topic, but your example of parking spots probably isn't the best. There's been some calls to lower the kinda ludicrous parking requirements mandated by local authorities

If the efforts to reduce parking requirements succeed, you can be sure that more units will be built with no parking lots at all (Profit$). We are seeing this in Portland where 20 unit apartment buildings are getting built with zero parking (or maybe 10 spaces available for additional rent). The end result, for now at least, is 30-40 more cars parked in the surrounding streets.

> If the efforts to reduce parking requirements succeed, you can be sure that more units will be built with no parking lots at all

I'm having trouble seeing the problem here. :)

Y'know what's even better for the environment than electric cars? No cars! I realize that living in California without a car is going to be difficult, but if you can manage it, you shouldn't have to pay for other people's parking spaces.

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#349

Post by pmarreck »

dheera wrote: post #330
mywittyname wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A staggering amount of buildings are built to code, and nothing more. If code says that there needs to be 1.5 parking spaces per bedroom for the complex, and the complex has 80 bedrooms, you can bet there will be 120 parking spots. Apartment managers will be dragged kicking and screaming into offering chargers for cars. The best way to get chargers into apartment buildings is going to be a local mandate that they hav…

> A staggering amount of buildings are built to code A staggering amount of buildings are also NOT built to code. My smoke detector failed and isn't getting replaced for a whole week. My heater makes scraping noises every time it starts and maintainence thinks it's normal. Smack in the middle of Silicon Valley. But this is the best of what I could afford. It's decent. It's clean. Everything else I saw at my budget wa…

Cool story, bro

Re: Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

#350

Post by mr_toad »

jiggawatts wrote: post #246

My problem is renting apartments. If you ask the strata or the building managers about charging points in the carpark, they look at you like you're speaking Klingon. This is true of even very recently completed buildings in well-off areas of relatively wealthy western countries. Heck, I just walked past three Teslas in my building's car park, one of which is new and wasn't there last week! Do people... not plan ahead…

I used to get the same deer-in-headlights look when I asked landlords about internet connectivity 20 years ago. Now they advertise it.
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