Quote:
Originally Posted by Tempest
Nor could the infrastructure handle a ton of people switching to electric cars. It can barely handle everything right now.
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This is not true.
A 2005 study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory estimated that three-quarters of the country’s current small vehicle fleet could be charged by our existing electrical grid without building new power plants.
The typical home is allocated 100-200 amps from the neighborhood’s transformer. An electric car is charged from a 50 amp circuit breaker. This is only 50 amps of the allotted 100-200. And if charged at night, not much other electricity is being used in the house. When charging, the car only draws as many amps as are available. Once plugged into a 50 amp outlet, the car only draws 40 amps (due to the National Electric Code (NEC)). And drawing 40 amps is drawing 40 amps, be it an oven or electric car. A home can’t draw more amps than it is allocated. Utilities are well informed of the maximum amperage of any given home, and the homeowner may not make any changes to the service without appropriate permits and approval by the utility.
Incidentally, the cost to charge an electric car such as the Telsa Roadster is only about $4.00 per 300 Km, vs about $50.00 for a Gasoline engine of the same horsepower.
