> My understanding is that there needs to be some kind of upgrade on our grid so everyone can charge their cars. This would likely involve increasing its capacity to handle the additional load from widespread EV charging.
It might help that most home EV charging will likely occur at night, when home power use tends to be at its lowest.
A home level 2 charger has a load comparable to an electric clothes dryer plus an electric water heater, and so is comparable to someone in an all electric household doing laundry. The average such household even does laundry for about as many hours a week as a typical EV in day to day use needs to charge.
That suggests that at least the parts of the grid nearer the end users, which would probably be most of the grid in most cities, should be fine as least as part of the grid's maximum capacity goes. If laundry during the day doesn't push them over, then home EV charging at night probably will not.
There may not be enough total power available per week to handle the EV load, but at least for that where upgrades would be needed would be at the power sources and maybe at some long distance distribution parts of the grid.
That's probably good news if true. I'd expect "we need to upgrade or build some long distance transmission lines" and/or "we need to upgrade or build some power plants" is probably going to be more feasible than "we need to update most of San Francisco's electrical system".
It might help that most home EV charging will likely occur at night, when home power use tends to be at its lowest.
A home level 2 charger has a load comparable to an electric clothes dryer plus an electric water heater, and so is comparable to someone in an all electric household doing laundry. The average such household even does laundry for about as many hours a week as a typical EV in day to day use needs to charge.
That suggests that at least the parts of the grid nearer the end users, which would probably be most of the grid in most cities, should be fine as least as part of the grid's maximum capacity goes. If laundry during the day doesn't push them over, then home EV charging at night probably will not.
There may not be enough total power available per week to handle the EV load, but at least for that where upgrades would be needed would be at the power sources and maybe at some long distance distribution parts of the grid.
That's probably good news if true. I'd expect "we need to upgrade or build some long distance transmission lines" and/or "we need to upgrade or build some power plants" is probably going to be more feasible than "we need to update most of San Francisco's electrical system".