That's exactly the problem - a grid that was predominantly designed for centralised generation sources, which isn't resilient to any of those sources going offline in an unscheduled manner. The UK NG has been ridiculously slow at redesigning its architecture for the combination of renewable energy & battery-based storage, leaving it still vulnerable to multiple and (more insidiously) cascading failures - in fact the recent UK outage was, in part, mitigated by a new battery system at Luton (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-power-cut-batteries-national-grid). The long-term analysis is that a new generation of grid architecture, battery storage (and not to forget existing pumped-storage hydro) and widely distributed renewable sources will combine with falling per capita demand and will quite happily support a mass transition to EVs. These are model-based predictions, so of course there's uncertainty, which is why I certainly wouldn't rule out nuclear (and ultimately fusion) baseload generation - but it's likely to be at a lower level than has historically been thought to be necessary.
How about a stonking car that's got a full tank every morning, has a range that comfortably exceeds that of my (or probably your) bladder and which recharges in the time it takes for me to empty said bladder and refill it with coffee?
Only if there's a unicorn in the back seat : o ) Nah, bruv. Decent car, stonking range. I'll even forego the unicorn. How soon will a car that takes less than ten minutes to charge be on the market and will there be as many charging ports as there are petrol pumps? Sign me up!
There are already more charging stations than filling stations and most drivers forget that, with an EV, you start every day with a full tank. On a domestic feed, my car charges overnight, on even the existing Superchargers it charges 10-80% in <30 minutes (see above about coffee & bladder), and then I've got the fun of working out what to do with 480hp and acceleration that will easily challenge a Multistrada. I checked the boot: no unicorn included.
You seem to be implying that everyone goes home for a few hours in every 24-hour cycle. Is that true? If so, sign me up! Currently, my PoS petrol car manages over 400 miles on a tank-full (used to be a lot less but traffic cams and licence points have contributed very positively to my mpg figures in a very positive way). So that's around 10 minutes fuelling, anywhere I can find a petrol station, for 400+ miles travel. This works for me and it works for my employer, too. Can EVs match this? If they can, sign me up! Finally, I tailed a Tesla something-or-other not so long ago on my 999S. I could have over-taken it, had I wished to ride irresponsibly and careless of points/consequences, but chose not to (I've become mature/old!). The car's performance was phenomenal. If an EV like that is made affordable - as affordable as a standard Superbike - sign me up!
And yet these problems and these horror stories persist, either someone isn’t telling the truth or no one is telling the truth. I’ve posted on this before but came across another example at the weekend that just shows how far EV’s have to go to be acceptable forms of usable transport. Friend of my brother in laws wanted to take his eBMW to his holiday home in southern Spain. Had to plan to the safety margin which is only within 20 miles per stop (providing you’re not using the Aircon or the wiper blades) exactly where he was going to be able to top up & for how long, assuming that they were all working and would charge at the advertised rate which apparently they don’t always do. Who the hell wants to be doing that on anything other than a trip to the shops and this is from and into a first world developed country, exactly how the grids in India, China and wherever else across the globe are going to cope is completely beyond me.
India won't bother and China has more sense ... so ... not sure where this is going to end up, globally speaking. Hopefully technology and power generation will be able to get close to the current logistics/limitations of running cars on fossil fuel and that people's preparedness to change habits will meet any shortfall. At least we won't need so many cross channel car ferries, once people realise they cannot wander around Europe using their own vehicles any longer. A small win there! Will governments be able to cope with populations being less mobile and more dependant on centrally-provided infrastructure? You know how the people in charge would prefer us all to be free and independent!
Do try to sort your facts out: China has - by far - the largest EV sales on the planet and is moving aggressively to transition to pure EV. In May 6.6% of Chinese car sales were pure EV (470,000 Jan to May). I live in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, about as far from most infrastructure as you'll get in Western Europe (save those to the N of me), and I have exactly zero issues or anxieties running a BEV. And EVs & renewables promote distributed infrastructure, not centralised. It's interesting that (anecdotally) most drivers who switch to EVs see their usage rise, as they're freed from the cost and inconvenience of fossil infrastructure.
Excellent. Hopefully the Chinese work work through any wrinkles in the model and we can learn from their example. So the EV revolution will scale up from being suitable for your circumstances all the way up to being suitable for practically everyone's. I'm feeling reassured. I'm looking for a second-hand EV now, price range around £2-2.5K.
How many people live in a home that can be used to charge their vehicle? terrace houses, flats, in town and city large gaffs without garages or even a frontage large enough for a car to park on. We think parking in cities is a bunfight now: wait to its 'your' charging point someone parks in front of!
If I were retired, or never yard yelled more than 50 miles, and had means to charge at hoke I'd consider one. But age old problem: not at 50k plus I won't!
We're actually a bit of an outlier, being part of the 16% of the population who live in properly rural areas: if we lived in a city/suburbia, we'd have been able to make the move several years ago. As it was, we figured around 2015 that 2019/20 would see the combination of vehicle capability & infrastructure that did the job for us (so stopped buying ICE vehicles), and that's turned out to be the case.
That is a genuine issue and probably one that's probably going to need primary legislation to address. In the meantime, different councils are being variably proactive about things like lamppost charging, dedicated street points and planning wrt ensuring that any new development or major refurb includes capacity for charging points.
Perhaps a centralised approach to this issue is required? With Central and Local Government taking the lead?
China has a staggering amount of electric scooters, certainly in the big cities like Shanghai - I didn't see/hear a petrol one in the 3 days I was there last year. Didn't notice many electric cars though, but understand they're being agressively pushed. Interestingly, the batteries simply unplug - so people took them into their homes to charge overnight. Not really seen anything like this in the UK in big cities. They're not the prettiest of things mind, but are perfect for city life.
The battery "simply unplugs"? So if you're caught short on power, you can just help yourself to whatever is handy! Kidding. I'm certain the batteries are locked safely and require a key to remove them.
