Will Electric Cars Crash The Grid?

Investor's Business Daily ^ | August 14, 2009 | IBD staff

[WhiteCastle]

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out?

Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes.

"If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."

[Almondjoy]

I don’t really care about CO2 hippie stuff but what i do care about is that i would rather give my money to an American coal fired plant than a Muslim Oil producing country anyday.

As long as we can keep the hippies moving electric cars over here than as the grid gets taxed we can push for nuclear. Well the hippies will be forced to decide between going back to foreign oil or to going nuclear.

[I got the rope]

exactly. This will be good for the electric companies. They can run their units at baseload and they will be more efficient.

[ColdWater]

Unless we build a lot of nuke plants, I don’t see how we can support an electric fleet.

Think about how much more electricity you use during the day compared to when you are sleeping. TV:250 Lights:500 Stove, Washer, Dryer, Stereo, Computer, .....

That is the difference that can supply MANY electric cars by smart night charging.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

[ColdWater]

I have read that the number of tons of coal is about 5 to be equivalent of a tank full of gasoline. .... Its the dirty little fact they won’t talk about.

Your dirty little fact is totally false.

[ColdWater]

Now I’m wondering how they will make these car owner pay for road repairs!!

Covered. They want to install GPS's in the cars and track your mileage and even which roads (toll, county, state, bridges, etc) you drive on.

[CarlosFonke]

Now I’m wondering how they will make these car owner pay for road repairs!!

A new set of tax packages, of course.

[dadgum]

10,000 pounds of coal to generate enough electricity to move a car about 300 miles? Uh, I don’t think that sounds right...

[ponygirl]

You’re also not adding in the costs of the batteries for these things. On the Prius, a replacement battery currently costs @$2500-$3000. (Although I hear the price is supposed to drop down to around $2000.) Guess what? Here in Arizona, I just had to replace a regular old $80 battery last weekend. I got a year and a half out of it. So I always buy the warranty because in this heat, batteries do NOT last, and you can be guaranteed that a $3000 battery will not fare any better.

[Mike-o-Matic]

  >> The Chevy Volt will be a huge success

I sure hope so, truthguy! Yes they will be costly at first (what ISN'T, when it's new?) but that should change rapidly.

IMHO most importantly, EREVs are currently our best chance forward to eliminating our addiction to foreign oil. Nevermind BS "saving the planet" feel-goodery, this is about national security!

People, your best bet for information about this car is neurosurgeon and Volt buff Lyle Dennis's website, gm-volt.com, which was quite aptly cited by truthguy. The latest news about the Volt is always there, Dr. Dennis has been on top of this thing since the Volt concept was first shown in early 2007. Plus, read the comments after each news-blog entry, and you'll also get perspectives from EV fans, oil haters, environmentalists, regular car-lovin' people, patriots... all kinds of folks.

You owe it to yourself to educated about EREVs. Visit today! http://www.GM-VOLT.com.

[Smokin' Joe]

I'm just guessing, but i figure you are from somewhere where winters just do not get below zero. It'll be a hundred degrees in North Dakota in January before I'll trust my life to an electric car in the winter here.

As far as carbon emissions go, that just isn't a problem here, people are plenty spread out.

It isn't that we don't have oil here, it is just that governmental encumbrances make it uneconomical to drill often enough that we cannot develop our own resources at profit levels high enough to sustain the exploration and development needed to keep production high enough to meet demand.

So, we import it.

[Mike-o-Matic]

According to http://www.onlineconversion.com/energy.htm, a ton of coal is equivalent to 222.432 gallons of gas.

[wastedyears]

And they don’t want more nuke plants.

[ColdWater]

I got a year and a half out of it. So I always buy the warranty because in this heat, batteries do NOT last, and you can be guaranteed that a $3000 battery will not fare any better.

In CA, the batteries are warranted for 10 years, 150,000 miles.

[ColdWater]

I'm just guessing, but i figure you are from somewhere where winters just do not get below zero. It'll be a hundred degrees in North Dakota in January before I'll trust my life to an electric car in the winter here.

Electric cars have been tested in environments to -17 deg. F. without a substantial reduction in performance. They are probably more reliable than regular cars at that temperature.

[wastedyears]

So since we use the least power at night, what will happen when everybody suddenly starts plugging in their cars at night all over the country?

[ColdWater]

So since we use the least power at night, what will happen when everybody suddenly starts plugging in their cars at night all over the country?

The cars will be equipped with smart chargers that will cut in as people turn off their lights and go nite-nite.

[wastedyears]

So the car will be equipped with a timer that will tell it when to charge?

Smart charger vs. timer... I’ll go with the standard word.

[ColdWater]

So the car will be equipped with a timer that will tell it when to charge? Smart charger vs. timer... I’ll go with the standard word.

I said smart charger. I did not say timer. If it were a timer, I would have said timer. If you go with timer, it will be incorrect.

[wastedyears]

So what’s a smart charger?