EV Boosters Cannot Do Math

According to Electrly, the electric vehicle charging manufacturer, it takes an average of 90 kilowatt-hours of electricity to fully charge a Tesla Model Y long range all-wheel-drive vehicle, 83 kWh for the Model Y performance version, and 67 kWh for the standard range Model Y.

Each Tesla uses between 0.24 to 0.30 kWh per mile, or about 4,500 kWh over a year for 15,000 miles of driving. Other electric vehicles use more or less, but within a similar range. At 0.30 kWh per mile, that’s 90 kWh for 300 miles of driving for the typical week.

The average American household without an in-home EV charging station consumes about 30 kWh per day, or about 10,720 kWh over a year’s time. With just one electric vehicle being charged at home, that total increases to about 15,220 kWh. For two-EV households, that total runs up to nearly 20,000 kWh per year (assuming both drivers commute to work). That’s nearly double current electricity usage for such families.

Without an EV in the garage, air conditioning uses nearly a fifth of household electricity, followed by space heating and water heating (a combined 25%). But adding just one home-charged EV changes that calculus dramatically. The EV takes up about 30% of the much higher total electricity use, dropping the share for all other uses significantly.

Two home-charged EVs would eat up nearly half the household’s total electricity usage – and require thousands of dollars to upgrade the house’s electric panel. Today’s 50-kva transformers, which cost about $8,000 each, can power about 60 homes; that number drops closer to 40 if each of those homes houses one electric vehicle, closer to 30 with two EVs using home chargers.

For a city with 120,000 homes, which today may require about 2,000 transformers, the addition of 120,000 home-charged electric vehicles means adding 1,000 transformers, about $8 million. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because distributing 50 to 100% more household electricity requires generating 50 to 100% more electricity.

All this costs money that most Americans today do not have, especially at the generation end. Especially with the push to eliminate electric generation from coal and natural gas and even nuclear energy. It also requires massive construction of electric infrastructure, from transmission lines to transformers to in-home charging stations accompanied by larger electric fuse boxes.

One might see all this as a great booster of the economy. One problem with this is that the U.S. is projected to have a shortfall of 550,000 electricians by 2027. Who will do all this work? Another problem is that most “studies” of the impact of electrifying the vehicle fleet and relying nearly entirely on wind and solar energy pay little attention to the impact on individual households and local communities.

Who will benefit – and who will be harmed? The “experts” either do not know or will not say.

Do they play chess? Do they realize that wise policy making requires a chess-like approach of evaluating the impact of today’s moves six or seven moves down the road?

Many of those who strongly advocate for an all-EV future live in cities governed by progressives whose public officials have been “soft” on property crimes. This may explain why thieves in the Seattle metro area have stolen the copper cables from over 100 EV charging stations in the past 12 months, leaving these stations totally useless until the cables are replaced (and then, often as not, stolen again).

Belgian firefighters are lobbying to ban the parking of electric vehicles in underground garages, just as liquefied petroleum gas vehicles without safety valves cannot park in them. The reason?

It takes up to 70 hours to extinguish an EV electric fire by immersing the vehicle in a skip filled with water – which can hardly be done in an underground car park. Worse, the water used to extinguish these fires reveals a chemical load up to 70 times higher than typical load limits for industrial wastewater.

Ars Technica reports one concern motorists have with buying EVs is the shortfall of public charging stations. The U.S. Department of Energy says that, of the nation’s 64,000 public charging stations, only 10,000 are direct current chargers that can replenish an EV battery is 30 minutes rather than several hours – and that’s if there is no line.

What the EV-promoting journal misses in its excuse-me post is that those fueling up at the nation’s 120,000 gasoline and diesel stations can do so in far less than 30 minutes, usually waiting a maximum 60 seconds to access a free pump.

Speaking of money, remember that Biden Administration promise two years ago to spend $7.5 billion to install about 20,000 EV charging stations with up to 500,000 charging points in operation? As of March 2024, only seven of these stations had been built with Biden dollars.

Maybe the reason is a lack of qualified personnel, maybe a lack of spare parts. Or is this money going down the same rabbit hole as the Solyndra and First Solar handouts?

Even in super-green Germany, whose zeal for environmental purity was such that it shut down its nuclear power industry (but reopened coal plants), half of EV owners regret their purchase or lease, many citing “rising electricity prices.” That same sentiment is growing in America and around the developed world despite the machinations of the globalist power elites.

The day of reckoning for the Biden (and other nations’) EV mandates may come soon, especially as defiant automakers have moved forward with hydrogen-fueled vehicles, cleaner internal combustion engines, and other alternatives to the electricity-sucking, highway-crushing (yes, the heavier EVs add wear and tear to public roadways) marvels, many of which rely on diesel generators or coal-fired power plants to operate.

But mostly, people just want to be free to make their own economic and transportation choices and not have some unelected bureaucrat making those decisions for them.

Duggan Flanakin (duggan@duggansdugout.com) is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.

If anyone is interested in real world EV charging numbers from home (not whatever they used for the basis for "average"), here are mine from 2023.

Total kWh consumed: 20,890 kWh
Total kWh EV charging (home): 4,922 kWh
Rest of house (excluding charging EV): 15,968 kWh
Total miles (home charged): 15,898
Pulled from the grid: 4,224 kWh

So home charging to drive 16K miles per year would be 24% of my power bill for my all-electric home if I didn't have solar providing 80% of my power I consume. This backs up the article's overall statement that charging an EV is a yuge part of a home's power consumption.

I don't know how many people do local driving of 16K miles per year. (Actually part of that 16K miles is trip driving too, since the first leg of each trip is charged at home the night before I head out for the trip.) And here in Alabama we run the AC more months than we run the heat. (I point out AC since the article rightly compares AC use with EV charging).

Obviously if I had gas heat then I'd have less total power consumption (thus the EV would be a higher portion of my overall power consumption). But the flip side to that is my A/C is a variable speed heat pump and my water heater is a hybrid water heater; basically being all-electric increases my power consumption while my other home energy improvements lowers my power consumption. So in many ways my home power consumption #'s aren't average.

“”to fully charge””

Once again, every manual I can find has recommended charging procedures and methods to PROLONG the life/condition of the battery. Do not charge to over 80%, and do not let the charge fall below 20%. Whether it is a single, small battery, Bluetooth headset, or an EV, they are all susceptible to damage from things like “fast charging.” Fast charging decreases the overall life of the battery. About 2 years ago, Finland was touting their new supercharger that would charge an EV in 15 minutes (no mention of the overall damage to the battery).

And, of course, as many know, their ultimate goal is to limit our freedom as much as possible. One of the many reasons that they cannot stand President Trump is he proved America can be energy independent. Drill Baby Drill is not just a catchy slogan. We have only drilled a few miles into the Earth. There are thousands of years of hydrocarbons under our feet. Inexpensive, abundant energy equals more freedom, and the democRATS despise freedom.

I have a Model 3 LR in DFW grid lock inch inch traffic it gets 130-150wh per mile, outside the urban core it uses 220 to 250 to do 75mph with the AC cranked up. The regen braking and slow average speeds are what an EV excells at. Just sitting at a stand still or in a parking lot with the AC on blast it’s 1.5kwh per hour average over a whole hour in 100F Texas heat. It peaks higher but the avg use is 1.5 or lower for those curious. It has a 75kwh pack and leaving a 10% reserve would be 67.5 kwh or 45 hours of a.c. I never ever worry bout using the AC while sitting it in with my laptop on the phone with clients.

I have a large two zone 4500+ sqft home it uses 80kwh per day or more from July to September every day to keep 68F in the bedrooms and 72 in the living spaces. I have a split unit in the master bedroom just to keep that at 65F for myself.

That Model 3 goes to Ft Worth on the regular a few times per month a 125 mile round trip. It uses 23 kwh to make that trip net. More typical use daily use is 20 miles round trip to the half naked sports bar four cities over. In that case it uses 4.5 kwh in a day. From a grid point of view it’s irrelevant as the large solar system on the roofs plural generate so much electricity that the power company pays me for the excess. I have a 15,000 w ahh system on the main structure , 10,000 more on the steel building that hold my cars ,boat and workshop. Both so far today in sunny Texas have made 150kwh and will cross 200 for sure this sunny afternoon before sunset.

I just looked at the smart meters via the app the main structure has used 65kwh and the steel building and ADU aka the mother-in-law pod has used 10. I could have charged three Tesla for a round trip to FT.W which is 7 cities away round trip or 16 Tesla for 20 mile round trip daily uses and the day is not over yet I’ll get another 50+ kwh before sub set. This is after the usage for A.C. And all the home loads. Texas get SUN in the summer 220 days per year of full sun at this latitude with the shortest day being 10 hours of daylight and the longest is 14+

You know what’s most important to me? Other than unlimited free miles of energy for as far as I could ever want to drive for the next 22 years left on the 25 year panel lifetimes. The dotgov can NEVER turn off the sun they can, have and will turn off gasoline pumps. No one has a working oil well and a functional refinery to make gasoline in the backyard let alone the back 40 acres. In two years or less I’ll turn in my Telsa for another one the battery life is irrelevant when it’s a lease and under warranty for every mile driven. It’s also cheaper per month than the S60 Volvo it is replacing so capex is half per mile or less.

I get it some boomers.don’t like EVs but in reality that generation is on the way out and it’s buying power by numbers of people and volume of sales is not enough to justify catering to them anymore from a corporate view point. In ten years or less the boomers will be gone or so small in number relative to GenX, Y and Z to be irrelevant from a purchasing block. Same goes for political power the younger generations now outnumber the older by two going on three to one. Demographics is destiny. The higher wealth people, wealth matters income does not, definitely want driving to be more expensive and more for the upper classes as cities grow in population it’s physically impossible to build more roads in the available space you must price people off the road and into public transportation. The best way is toll lanes with congestion pricing everywhere all the time. Dallas does this so does Houston it works gangbusters, right behind that should be congestion pricing to enter the urban core and also cost per mile for every mile. Driving is a privilege don’t think so try driving without a state issued licence and valid insurance jail will.follow shortly. Freedom of movement does not include personal vehicles those are a privilege. You can walk,bike, take a bus, subway, uber ect that’s what’s a right driving is not period full stop and the courts already rules as such. Ask any DUI person about the steps needed to keep the privilege after the state says you are a danger on the road. These are unpopular facts but facts none the less. During the pandemic is was so nice when the roads where empty it shows what I would be like with 50% or less cars on the existing system and it makes all the high wealth people want exactly that.

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