What's your energy mix/price?

HaulingAss

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IMO…when the price per kWh reaches .36 cents, most folks will be trading their EV’s in for ICE vehicles if the fuel prices remain as they are.
That's an uninformed opinion. EV's have numerous advantages vs. ICE besides price to refuel. Driving dynamics, reliability, cost to service, no oil and filter changes, brake life, vehicle life, refueling convenience, power and instant performance, etc. etc. etc. Additionally, $0 .36/kWh isn't even price parity for fuel cost for most Americans. It depends upon how much fuel costs in your area but most Americans are paying mid to upper $2 range and many are paying mid $3 range.

Due to the EV advantadges listed above, only people in the lowest socio-economic classes would switch back to gas at anywhere close to price parity to refuel. Only those people who couldn't afford a small amount of money upfront to refuel would forgo all the advantages of EV's (including their long-term cost savings even if fuel was at price parity per mile). These are people who are having trouble earning enough money to buy life's most basic necessities. And at any electricity price close to price parity their decision to switch back to gas would be a poor longer-term economic decision (due to the long-term economic factors listed above). The poorest people in our nation often get the short end of the stick, both due to poor economic decision making and also due to being forced into poor long term economic decisions based upon immediate economic needs.

Even if EV's magically became more expensive to refuel in large areas of the country, most people who could afford the small amount of extra money to charge vs. fillup would continue to drive electric for the many non-economic advantages EV's provide. Once people live with an EV having more range than they need, they cannot go back. It's tough to give up something so nice once you've become accustomed to it.


Doesn’t matter when we plug in our EVs, day or night, the grid can only handle so much. I understand everyone will take advantage during off peak hours, the breaker from hell will trip during the night as well as during the day. We’re talking about an additional load here that the grid is not accustom to. It’s going to get interesting within the next 10 years, I don’t expect to be around then but, my grandkids will be left to deal with the outcome.?
This is nothing but FUD cloaked in apparent common sense.

The facts lead to a different conclusion. The additional load from EV charging will not be the biggest bump in the road in the ever expanding electrical consumption/production of the the grid. Back in the 1950's and 1960's air conditioning hit the scene in dramatic fashion. All of a sudden, everyone in areas that had hot summers wanted one. And everyone turned them on full blast on the hottest days of the year. Guess how the grid handled this unprecedented increase in electrical demand?

That's right, it grew and developed along with demand, just as it had been doing for decades. Grid capacity is constantly increasing to meet demand and, like Crissa has already pointed out, the demand nature of EV charging is not time sensitive (in the way air conditioning is). The EV revolution will help, not hurt, electrical providers. It will help them become more profitable and provide capital for sooner expansion.
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HaulingAss

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Would you please show me where you are getting your information from. Shutting down perfectly operating power plants that just spent billions of dollars to comply with the EPA standards to install solar systems that cannot possibly produce the power that the plant was shut down is no where near, and can never be economical to do so. Reference San Juan Generating station in the four corners area and you will quickly understand the size of this facility. Thousand of people out of work and the state is now concerned the power is not going to be available for the consumers. Solar in no way shape or form can compete against a coal fired plant. It simply can’t happen period.
Shutting down a power plant before it's planned life expectancy of 30-40 years hurts investors. But that is exactly what is happening in many instances of coal plants that have become unprofitable to run in a world with increasingly cheap solar and wind energy. Coal can no longer compete even with all the federal subsidies they get. It's uneconomic. Investors are even balking at the idea of building new natural gas generation in many instances, it depends upon the local conditions.

Saying "it simply can't happen" ignores the many instances of coal plants shutting down due to an inability to compete with cheaper mixes of energy provided by natural gas, solar and wind (increasingly with some battery storage thrown in the mix).
 
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Crissa

Crissa

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Crissa,
I ment no offense to you, I apologize if you took it that way.
Does 'dude' sound serious?

The thing is, a 3 mpkWh EV performs like a 24 mpg car, but are still less to operate given 43¢ per kWh vs $3.50 a gallon gas.

There's just alot of advantages to EVs, especially once you've already bought them: No regular visits to gas stations, low/cheap maintenance. EVs don't get more expensive as they pile on the miles - they get cheaper.

And as I said, EVs are batteries. People usually them when they sleep - when power is cheapest. So they actually don't really impact the grid all that much at all. And if V2G tech comes in, all those parked cars can offset daily peak power consumption.

-Crissa

PS, you can actually 'bank' power with an air conditioner:
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