Hi . I may have missed this topic as it’s 175 pages - but has anyone calculated how many MW of electrical power is needed to power a million golf sized cars doing 12,000 Miiles year? And take an all round yearly average KW/ mile of an EV ? I believe we have 33 million cars and vans on fossil fuels so wondered how the sums stack up for several million EVs replacing some of those eventually.
An efficient EV uses about 1kWh per 4 miles so 12,000 miles = 3,000kWh of electricity per year = 8.2kWh per day. One million of those vehicles = 8.2 GWh per day. If the charging is undertaken between midnight and 6am then there's an extra 1.37GW load on the grid which is easily accommodated
https://gridwatch.co.uk/. If there are 10 million EVs being charged then the average charging load is a more significant 13.7GW. However, if 10% of those vehicles are trying to charge at 6pm on a day when the wind isn't blowing then the generating capacity could be overwhelmed. Use of smart chargers and smart tariffs can reduce the risk by making the cost of electricity during peak hours more expensive.The above calculation ignores energy used during charging (perhaps 95% efficiency?).
The other related issue, as already noted, is whether the local distribution network can handle the power and this depends on the rating of the chargers. On average, as per the calculation above, 8.2kWh of charging spread over 6 hours is a modest 1.37kW which is less than half the typical electric kettle. However, if it's a vehicle doing a daily 100 miles commute doing 3.5 miles per kWh then it uses 28.6kWh of electricity or 4.76kW if spread over 6 hours. It's the row of houses all doing that at the same time which may be worrying the distribution network operators who have been, BTW, progressively increasing the daily charge for having an electricity connection.
EVs make most sense for the shorter, usually urban, journeys where the impact of traffic and cold engines adversely affects vehicles with engines. They will therefore have reduced charging needs compared to the average. It will also be better for the planet if the average vehicle annual mileage reduces and the trend towards working from home should help this.