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Why this charging initiative?
Buildings last 50 years or more. Carbon emissions aside, the oil companies themselves have admitted that at current rates of consumption, there is less than 40 years of supply left, despite expanded exploration. This is what motivates the policy makers to action.
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We don't have the infrastructure
The infrastructure to charge a significant number of electric cars is already in place. Running a wire from the distribution panel to through some conduit is easy and cheap. However, the civic electrical policy makers assume that every car outlet is fully utilized in the middle of winter during dinner hour when everything else is on. Now the peak load has been increased to the point where a larger building transformer must be specified. This is the extra $1500 per stall. Single family houses are pretty much ok in this regard.
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What about street parkers? Where do they plug in?
Well, the street lights have power, so it's out there.
However, those people will have to wait until they install transformers, outlets and smart metering.
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The electric grid can't handle the load
IF everyone had an EV AND it was a peak period during the dinner hour in winter, there might be a problem.
But everyone does not have one right now. The peak hour has a cushion factor. And EVs are usually set up
to charge while we are asleep and the grid has almost no load. If you have a powerful EV charger, it will
be the same as running a dryer, about 20 cents an hour. Many EVs charge off 120 volts and have a current
drain comparable to a hallway and two rooms with their lights on.
At this rate the EV charge will cost you 6 cents an hour!
When BC had the coldest night, BC Hydro claimed that we were using 11 gigawatts of power.
Previous to that, the stated peak power of our grid was 13 gigawatts.
There are losses in long distance electric power transmission, so most power in BC is actually generated locally.
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EVs just pollute somewhere else
This is true only if fossil fuels are burned to produce electric power. The mix in North America is about 25%
coal (and going down). Even with 100% coal, the EV is still cleaner (carbon dioxide and particulates)
by a third. If the plant is old, particulates will be higher. However, those have mostly been mandated
to clean up their act. There is no contest if you count the pollution created by the extraction, refining,
storage and shipping of the petroleum. Then there is the fact that cars get dirtier every year due to wear and
going out of tune.
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My Hydro bill will go though the roof
The average household with electric heat costs $100 a month. An EV driven daily costs $20 a month.
So it will increase your Hydro bill from $100 to $120 a month, or 20%. What's your gasoline bill?
Put a power bar on your home entertainment center plus turn off some lights and you will
recoup enough power for the commute to work. Really, EVs are that efficient.
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Electric Cars Pollute too - what about coal, nuclear and giant new lakes?
Argonne National Laboratories, a publicly-funded US Research Lab, has developed a public domain
spreadsheet model to profile greenhouse gas emissions and net energy
usage for various transportation modes and fuel types. It shows that electric cars
powered from coal plants actually pollute a third less than gas cars do. Of course
we here in BC are 95% clean. We have no nuclear plants, and most power in BC is actually
generated locally due to long distance transmission losses. It rains a LOT here on the wet coast!
After all, the story is about charging in the City of Vancouver proper.
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Batteries cost way more than gas because they have to be replaced - have you thought of that?
Your gas engine has to be maintained and replaced too. If you count engine replacement and fuel
costs over say, 300,000 km for the two types of vehicles, the electric car costs about 1/3 as much
to operate. If the batteries are lithium instead of lead, the cost goes down to about 1/5 as much.
Only the engine replacement and the cost of gas at today's rates are figured in here. The cost of
tuneups, exhaust, cooling system and general engine repairs have not been included.
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EV Batteries pollute landfills with toxic lead and lithium
It is illegal to dump lead acid batteries in landfills. They must be recycled, and are actually 99% recyclable.
They are ground up, the acid reclaimed and recycled, the plastic is separated out to make new cases and the lead
is easily melted and purified into ingots to make ... new batteries!
Regarding lithium - it's not toxic! We take lithium ions internally to counteract mood disorders.
Lithium from batteries is also recycled to reclaim the metal.
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