If most of the charging is done at night (which seems likely) the added loads shouldn’t be much of an issue for many years to come.
I worked at a large mfg plant that used a lot of juice. We were one of the loads that the power company had to monitor closely. Our most important time was 2-5 pm on hot summer days. That’s when the power company was stretched tightest.
Over night we could do anything without load issues.
The distribution pattern will be radically different, with increases in the residential and rural areas.
The generation might be there (if the EPA doesn't force too many coal plants off-line), but distribution will be a problem in some areas.
People with long commutes, such as the farmer/former physicist in the article, will certainly be charging their cars during the day.
I wasn’t thinking so much of the load on the power plant at any given time, as the fact that more fuel will be required by the plant to generate the extra electricity, even if all the cars charge at non-peak times. Not only that, but cranking up power production to accommodate electric cars will increase wear and tear on the plants, necessitating more down-time for maintenance.
There is no getting around the fact that more power plants will have to be built if a significant number of people start using electric cars.
...and I could go on. Here in Texas one day about 3 years ago I picked up the newspaper to find that something like 12 proposed coal power plants were canceled. Just plain canceled, due to their effect on global warming. Not replaced with something else, just canceled.
Well, I figure that they were proposed for a reason - such as an exploding population, modernization, etc. But they were simply canceled. No problem that day, no problem today, but a few years from now, when we were COUNTING ON THEM, they simply will not be there. Can we “absorb” that loss? Maybe (it would certainly help to get the illegals out, but that’s another thread). But those plants were proposed for a reason - and I don’t think it was for electric cars, as they never said anything to that effect when they canceled them.
So we lose capacity that was DEFINITELY needed, at least here in Texas, and we now start adding what look almost like new houses (in addition to our real new houses) every time someone buys one of these POS’s. We lose.