Shared by loyal reader, Jim Wick
From a Quora post by Steve Baker
How is the grid holding up with all new electric cars being sold in 2022?
FACT: There are about 2 million electric cars in the USA.
FACT: Average driver does 30 miles per day…so 60 million miles driven per day.
FACT: You need about 1kWh per 4 miles driven in a typical EV.
FACT: The USA consumes 3.9 trillion kWh per year – over 10 billion kWh per day.
So, we need 15 million kWh per day to keep those EV’s on the road.
Hence the EVs add somewhere around an eighth of one percent of the total US demand.
BUT: It’s better than that…
FACT: Most EV owners charge their cars overnight almost all of the time.
FACT: During the night, there is MUCH less electricity demand so both the grid and the power stations are under-used.
FACT: The oil refineries, oil and gasoline pipeline pumps and gas station use a LOT of electricity – and with reduced gasoline consumption – there will be savings.
It is estimated that it takes 8kWh of electricity to get one gallon of gas from oil well to gas tank. An electric car can drive 32 miles on 8kWh – and since the average MPG of cars in the USA is 25.4 mpg – that means that replacing a gas car with an electric car actually REDUCES the amount of electricity we need.
I only just thought of this (truly!), and when I googled it to try to verify it, I found that I’m roughly correct!!
Overall, the extra load on the grid is very, very nearly zero, and if that math is right, we’ll actually save electricity by switching to EV’s!
That will be true even if 100% of all vehicles in the U.S. were electric.
Sorry – one less bit of fake news to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Steve Baker is a software engineer, 3D graphics geek, gadget maker, and blogger at LetsRunWithIt.com.
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