Gas prices making anyone reconsider?

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

WalleyeMikeIII

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2022
Posts
2,261
Reaction score
1,852
Location
Sunny and Snowy Minnesota
There are dozens of articles on this. The US electrical generation capacity is over 4B kwh. Concensus seems to be that it would consume 25-30% of that generation capacity if all cars suddenly became electric.

View attachment 366763
Yes, that is the Annual output in kWhr.

The Output at any one instant is ~1.1BkW (see here)
"At the end of 2020, the United States had 1,117,475 MW—or about 1.12 billion kilowatts (kW)—of total utility-scale electricity generating capacity and about 27,724 MW—or nearly 0.03 billion kW—of small-scale solar photovoltaic electricity generating capacity."

Net, my math and the article are in the same ballpark...
 

WalleyeMikeIII

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2022
Posts
2,261
Reaction score
1,852
Location
Sunny and Snowy Minnesota
:signs1:

yes...the ol we cant fix it all at once so lets do nothing approach
I'm totally OK trying to fix it...but this particular issue is one of the key enablers. Besides just putting EV's on the road, you need infrastructure to "fuel" them...and the infrastructure part gets .1% of the press, when it is at least 50% of the problem.
 

George B

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Posts
7,769
Reaction score
18,599
Location
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin 53066
I agree that the infrastructure is not currently adequate but nobody can flip a switch and have us all in EVs tomorrow or even five or ten years. Even then, I suspect many people wouldn’t need to charge on a daily basis. As an example, both my wife and myself could probably go all week without needing to recharge. There are many people with short commutes and city driving patterns.
 

WalleyeMikeIII

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2022
Posts
2,261
Reaction score
1,852
Location
Sunny and Snowy Minnesota
I agree that the infrastructure is not currently adequate but nobody can flip a switch and have us all in EVs tomorrow or even five or ten years. Even then, I suspect many people wouldn’t need to charge on a daily basis. As an example, both my wife and myself could probably go all week without needing to recharge. There are many people with short commutes and city driving patterns.
Those driving patterns are factored into my estimate…I simply converted the energy used today by ICE cars to the needed electrical power.
 

Baja_Bob

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2022
Posts
300
Reaction score
159
Location
Michigan
We'll just run a long extension cord from Russia.

Even if the U.S. infrastructure was capable of handling everyone's electric cars, toasters, A/C, I'm still not ready to switch to all electric vehicles.
 
Last edited:

Baja_Bob

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2022
Posts
300
Reaction score
159
Location
Michigan
I don't think half of the U.S. is ready to go full electric vehicles. GM is taking a big gamble by trying to only make electric vehicles by 2025 or whatever. They could lose a lot of customers if Ford and others still made gas vehicles, if my only option in a GM product was electric, I might buy another brand.
 

firsttimetahoe

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2022
Posts
426
Reaction score
185
I don't think half of the U.S. is ready to go full electric vehicles.
ofcourse it's not. where I live, a major storm can knock out the power in my entire neighborhood for over a week. how am i supposed to charge my car when I have no power?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
132,321
Posts
1,865,944
Members
96,912
Latest member
Papaskip
Top