Kyped from elsewhere
Grid Status:
Will the grid become a choke point as EVs look to take over?
Multiple brands like Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo plan to be EV-only in roughly the next decade. Ford recently jumped into a war with Tesla and slashed prices for its new Mustang Mach-E. And last week, amid the White House’s aggressive push for greener transportation, the US Department of the Treasury rewrote the rules for EV tax breaks, allowing even more vehicles to be eligible for government subsidies.
Car makers and DC could have bitten off more than the country’s energy sector can chew:
EVs currently make up about 7% of cars on the road in the US, but that could increase to a third or even half of all light vehicles sold annually, according to the WSJ. The good news is that right now, EVs really don’t consume all that much energy. A study by the Argonne National Laboratory, found that the roughly 2.1 million EVs on the road in 2021 accounted for less than a percent of electricity consumption.
While many energy experts believe the US’s power grid will be up to the task, it will require a lot of money. Charging a vehicle at home is not like turning on a light or plugging in a phone. You need a huge boost in electrical-transmitting capacity at the local level. Power industries nationwide might need to spend $10 billion through 2030 updating their infrastructure to charge all the new EVs, Thomas Baker of Boston Consulting Group told the WSJ.
Some parts of the country are already hitting speed bumps. Last September, California asked residents to not charge their cars in the evening during a heat wave. That might be the plan for the foreseeable future in some areas — charging at only certain hours of the day.