Electric future

[Duck Vader]

https://www.king5.com/article/news/loca ... 91667bb85a

Basically California is implementing a new law that will ban the sell of new gas powered cars by 2035. Washington state agreed to do the same. California already did their part apparently and is just waiting on federal approval.

[mjannusch]

Better make sure that electrical grid is up to snuff.

[Chris GTO TT]

[quote=""mjannusch""]Better make sure that electrical grid is up to snuff.[/quote]

One of my primary concerns however most of the time EVs are not charging during peak usage times. Meaning the grid should be able to support it.

[Duck Vader]

My concern is how long it takes to charge and how limited the grid/options are in general still. Great you have a car that goes 300 miles. If you need to drive more than that you are stuck charging for a long time.

The new program does allow for hydrogen cars, which in theory could be used for longer drives, but that infrastructure is even more limited.

[ChargerX3]

Cant wait for rolling blackouts again.

[Jeff V.]

My concern is how long it takes to charge and how limited the grid/options are in general still. Great you have a car that goes 300 miles. If you need to drive more than that you are stuck charging for a long time.

The new program does allow for hydrogen cars, which in theory could be used for longer drives, but that infrastructure is even more limited.

The vast majority of trips are a lot less than that. It's not as big of a factor as most people make it out to be. If you can charge it at home, you'll be fine.

The bigger problem is the number of people who don't have access to at-home charging. Apartments, houses that only have street parking, etc.

[Chris GTO TT]

[quote=""ChargerX3""]Cant wait for rolling blackouts again.

[/quote]



We’ve had less than Texas and most of the ones we had in the past were engineered by Texas (Enron)

[Duck Vader]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]The vast majority of trips are a lot less than that. It's not as big of a factor as most people make it out to be. If you can charge it at home, you'll be fine.

The bigger problem is the number of people who don't have access to at-home charging. Apartments, houses that only have street parking, etc.[/quote]

I agree, but it is still an issue, especially in rural communities and people who use pickup trucks for business.

[aaronatstate]

[quote=""Chris GTO TT""]One of my primary concerns however most of the time EVs are not charging during peak usage times. Meaning the grid should be able to support it.[/quote]

That's a good point about off peak times, but I wonder if power plants would be prepared to run at higher demand around the clock as well

[quote=""Jeff V.""]The vast majority of trips are a lot less than that. It's not as big of a factor as most people make it out to be. If you can charge it at home, you'll be fine.

The bigger problem is the number of people who don't have access to at-home charging. Apartments, houses that only have street parking, etc.[/quote]

This is an excellent point. Really since I drive 60-70miles a day, an electric car does make sense for me. But they are still just too expensive at this point for me to justify getting into one, and I still really like my cars that run on dead dinosaurs.

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""Chris GTO TT""]

We’ve had less than Texas and most of the ones we had in the past were engineered by Texas (Enron)[/quote]

Circa early 2000's was a shit show, but California is still not immune. In a recent 2 year span they had over 50,000 significant blackouts. And they are continually on the rise. That's not even including the more recent PG&E fire nonsense.

https://www.bloomenergy.com/bloom-energ ... %20outages.

[Jeff V.]

I'm still just dumbfounded by the failure of the Chevy Volt. It seemed like the perfect transitional car between full ICE and full EV. It had all the benefits of a commuter EV with none of the range anxiety.

Oh, wait...SUVs. Nevermind.

[Chris GTO TT]

[quote=""ChargerX3""]Circa early 2000's was a shit show, but California is still not immune. In a recent 2 year span they had over 50,000 significant blackouts. And they are continually on the rise. That's not even including the more recent PG&E fire nonsense.

https://www.bloomenergy.com/bloom-energ ... %20outages.[/quote]
That article is specifically about the planned power shutdown to prevent wildfires aka PG&E fire nonsense.

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""Chris GTO TT""]That article is specifically about the planned power shutdown to prevent wildfires aka PG&E fire nonsense.[/quote]

Its about total outages. New planned outages added 2,374 out of a total 50,015 significant power outages. That is a lot out outages.

Also average duration was 46 hours long.

That's nuts.

[Duck Vader]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]I'm still just dumbfounded by the failure of the Chevy Volt. It seemed like the perfect transitional car between full ICE and full EV. It had all the benefits of a commuter EV with none of the range anxiety.

Oh, wait...SUVs. Nevermind. [/quote]

I also think although it was a nice car for what it was, it wasn't unique enough to justify the cost. Other companies did the same thing and did well with them, but those companies specialized in bland cars (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc). A lot of plug in hybrids exist. For some reason though the Volt just didn't survive. I believe I read that they killed if off in efforts to just go full electric.

Ford had a few for awhile - do they still?

[Chris GTO TT]

[quote=""ChargerX3""]Its about total outages. New planned outages added 2,374 out of a total 50,015 significant power outages. That is a lot out outages.

Also average duration was 46 hours long.

That's nuts.[/quote]

so what does this remotely have to do with your initial claims of rolling blackouts? Nothing. Yes PG&E sucks and should have been dismantled years ago. They been found criminally negligent on multiple occasions causing loss of life, property, and productivity. But those aren’t rolling blackouts because the grid didn’t have enough energy to supply demand. Texas as I mentioned has had far more and severe energy deficits causing blackouts. Where’s your thinly veiled outrage for that failure? Or for when a hurricane destroyed PR’s power grid? Or when it destroyed Florida’s and energy companies from across the country had to rebuild it for them?

There are lots of concerns with this plan, but Rolling Blackouts likely wont be a problem because of this plan.

[alienviking]

We need more nuclear power plants.

That said, range anxiety is so overrated. "Oh but what about the one trip I might do every 4 years!@$#@!!!"

I almost bought the first gen Volt. It would have been our only car, and the constant swapping back and forth between a 6'1 and a 4'9 driver with the manual seat was just too much of a hassle. Yes, first world problem. My cousin has the latest Volt and loves it.

[Duck Vader]

Personally full electric doesn't work for me. I know it would for 99% of the population though. I drive way too much and do too many long drive a year. I average 15-20k a year on my vehicles. Multiple trips a year that go over the range of even the high end ones. Unless I fork over well over 100k for one, none would have worked for me yesterday as example. Almost 500 miles.

[Chris GTO TT]

Yeah I’m not sure the current crop of electric vehicles would work for us either. Their range would be fine, but the interior space seems to be fairly limited on all but the higher end ones.

[ChargerX3]

[quote=""Chris GTO TT""]so what does this remotely have to do with your initial claims of rolling blackouts? Nothing. Yes PG&E sucks and should have been dismantled years ago. They been found criminally negligent on multiple occasions causing loss of life, property, and productivity. But those aren’t rolling blackouts because the grid didn’t have enough energy to supply demand. Texas as I mentioned has had far more and severe energy deficits causing blackouts. Where’s your thinly veiled outrage for that failure? Or for when a hurricane destroyed PR’s power grid? Or when it destroyed Florida’s and energy companies from across the country had to rebuild it for them?

There are lots of concerns with this plan, but Rolling Blackouts likely wont be a problem because of this plan.[/quote]

The CA statistic includes all blackouts (rolling included). They just don't go into details of which, likely because PG&E keeps that info. Either way that is still a vast amount of blackouts. Throw a growing electric car plan on an already struggling grid. I don't see it getting any better before it gets worse.

Texas and Florida aren't mandating a 2035 transfer, so the point is mute.

[Chris GTO TT]

Sorry Steve but you’re grasping at straws there. Claiming rolling blackouts are everywhere in CA is a lie. There has been 1 rolling blackout ordered by CalISO in CA in the last 20 years. The ones incurred before that (when Gray Davis was governor) have been proven to have been engineered by Enron.

Power outages are likely up in general across the country because of an increase in severe weather. It’s not worth my time to go look it up since you’re so stuck on ‘libs are evil’ comments