Norway don't need no nukes....
EV sales 61%
If you know about Vinmonopolet in Norway - you can see where that's going.
Oct 2, 2020 at 8:12 AM tomo

Norwegian Urban Greens must be celebrating that reliable cars are going the way of the Norwegian Blues.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/02/californias-looming-green-new-car-wreck/

If each vehicle needs an average of 62 kilowatt-hours for a full charge, then the total charging power required daily would be 3,750,000 x 62 KWh, which equals 232,500,000 KWh, or 232.5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) daily.

Why on earth would everyone do a full charge every day? The model used has a range of >300 miles, the average daily mileage is more like 25. You can 'prove' anything if you arbitrarily multiply a key factor by 10.

Sheesh.

I acknowledge the help of Willis Eschenbach in checking the numbers for this article.

Ah, that explains it.

Oct 2, 2020 at 4:26 PM Phil Clarke
You believe in Mann's Hockey Stick, Gergis, Cook, Lewandowsky etc. Do you understand why Climate Science and Green Blob maths is always wrong?

Phil C: one of the early commenters on the post made that point although I think he probably underestimated the demand.
Adjusting for a daily mileage of, say, 50 (versus about 30 in the UK) would bring that demand down to approx 50 GWh which is still pretty chunky for a state already suffering power shortages.

"You can 'prove' anything if you arbitrarily multiply a key factor by 10.
Oct 2, 2020 at 4:26 PM Phil Clarke"

Climate Science is based on mathematical errors, some of them accidental.

Oct 2, 2020 at 6:20 PM MikeHig
Along with endurance trials, further tests need to be done to assess the number of charging cycles and decline in performance. A 4-5 seater, combined school run bus and shopping trolley, is fine for many living in towns and cities

Phil Clarke, you think it should be 23 Gwh/day.

Will that be from wind, solar or unicorn farts?

All from pollution-free mineral extraction, because reasons.

This is a bit counter-intuitive but I think that the growth in the EV fleet is good news for our gas-fired power stations.
At the moment their economics have been undermined by the prioritisation onto the grid of renewables, after the nuclear output. So they have become swing producers.
Virtually all EVs will be charged off-peak to benefit from the cheapest tariffs. That will raise the off-peak demand which can only be met by the CCGTs, giving them greater output and less downtime.

From Autocar:

"Carbon electrodes promise EV battery performance breakthrough
New tech is said to bring “revolutionary improvements in power, energy, lifecycle and charging time.
The Ultra Fast Carbon Electrode uses 100 billion vertically aligned carbon nanotubes per square centimetre, dramatically boosting ionic, electrical and thermal conductivity. Claimed to boost battery power by a factor of 10, energy storage by a factor of three and substantially increase the battery’s usable life, it's also said to reduce charging times “down to minutes instead of hours”

It's a French company called NAWA.
If it's true it could have major ramifications.....if it's true.....

If it's true it could have major ramifications.....if it's true.....

Oct 7, 2020 at 2:12 PM MikeHig

Great news, if it is true! But the ability to store all those electrons still requires a reliable supply of electrons needing to be stored.

Another pitfall of EVs:
"I wasn't able to test it properly as a family member accidentally drove into the cable and has written off our Tesla charger."

"Now comes the problem. Another owner, perhaps keen to be rid of his petrol car, has applied to install a fast charger, only the second in a street of maybe 15 houses. The electricity company has turned him down because there is insufficient capacity on the local transformer. Because an upgrade would cost them tens of thousands of pounds, there is little likelihood that they will ever be willing to foot the bill.

All these owners are clever people. They believe they are doing the right thing for the planet. It has been a shock to them to find that no one has thought through the issues of expanding EV use. They will not be the last to learn this lesson. It is still very early days for the electric car, but already many such problems are surfacing. It’s not just transformers, but wiring inside and outside the home, and a range of other problems. To most environmentalists, saving the planet seems so easy, but many are about to find out that dull engineering questions still need to be answered. Engineering, like science, has to take precedence over public relations. Nature really cannot be fooled."

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/electric-cars-run-into-a-roadblock/

We are going to see more and more of these problems as the take-up of EVs grows. While each one is very minor, it's a showstopper for the individual. Mike Travers wrote a good report for the GWPF that examined these issues in detail.

Alongside that, I wouldn't be surprised if the power companies will play the angles since, aiui, they can make money on authorised capex. Also they will be looking for government funding to "upgrade the network".

Lots of recalls going on at the moment for PHEVs (Ford Kuga, BMW 330e) and BEVs (Hyundai Kona, possibly Kia Niro) for problems that can lead to battery fires.

https://www-autoexpress-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.autoexpress.co.uk/hybrid-cars/353474/bmw-recalls-multiple-plug-hybrid-models?
"BMW recalls multiple plug-in hybrid models
BMW’s engineers have identified a problem with PHEV battery packs, which could result in a short circuit and potentially cause a fire"

"BMW’s engineers have found some discrepancies in the manufacturing process of its battery packs, which the company sources from the third-party supplier Northvolt. There’s a concern that foreign contaminants may have been sealed into the units during their assembly, which have the potential to short circuit the battery pack and cause a fire."

That battery manufacturer also supplies VW group.......

Such fires can be nasty as they give off some pretty toxic fumes. I am a bit surprised that many users charge their cars inside garages which are integral with their houses.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/17/how-green-hydrogen-can-become-cheap-enough-to-compete-with-fossil-fuels/

"I am a bit surprised that many users charge their cars inside garages which are integral with their houses."

Oct 16, 2020 at 3:48 PM MikeHig

Agreed! UK Building Regulations have never made special provision for charging 12 Volt car batteries within domestic properties. The floor slab of a garage should be lower than that of an attached house so that leaking fluids do not flow into the house.

tomo: high prices for Tesla superchargers make for headlines but have little relevance to most EV users, going by comments on EV forums.
It's a more extreme form of paying motorway prices for petrol instead of supermarket.
Very few EVs make regular use of superchargers and those that do will be business users. The majority charge at home or workplace and pay a fraction of the supercharger rate. They use overnight tariffs of around 5p per kWh versus 24p on SCs.

Apologies if I'm preaching to the choir!