Pompey
Tremor Addict
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2020
- Messages
- 1,211
- Reaction Points
- 3,217
- Location
- Granite Belt, Queensland
- Current Ride
- 2018 Subaru Outback
- Current Ride #2
- 1999 Subaru WRX Club Spec Evo 3
Indeed. Here in my state they decided to upgrade the grid some years ago. It was mainly to do with adding substations to keep supply up with a huge population increase. That effort would be absolutely dwarfed by what would be required for a complete switch to electric vehicles.15 years is very aggressive for something that massive of a undertaking. Batteries were a issue over 20 years ago when I was in college. And lots of research going on improving that but we are only recently seeing what was being developed then being commercially available. To quote my old professor is making a great electric car is easy and had been done already getting a better batterie is the challenge. Here we are 20 years later and the batteries are still the issue for electric cars. It was only a handful of years ago Tesla were having substantial volatility issues with the batteries. Go too fast and now have a public safety concern.
As Pompey pointed out the infrastructure upgrades to support the charging loads are even less likely in 15 years. Especially in a highly regulated area like CA where electric grid is currently struggling to keep up with demand without all the added charging load.
If you are already experiencing power shortages now then you will be in a whole world of pain by mandating such a huge increase in demand for an already scarce commodity. The knock on effect will be not only increased electricity bills for the home, but business as well. Sites will be required for new power stations as well.
Sure, we have the technology to roll out the infrastructure. That isn’t a problem that needs solving. The cost of it is something that time probably won’t solve. The effects of this China virus is having a negative economic effect. Just where will the money come from to pay for this enormous capital expenditure? Normally with huge capital expenditures you end up with an overall economic gain. Apart from politicians thinking they should feel good by doing something there are no significant obvious economic gains.