The Expert Podcast

So is there enough electricity to go around to power electric vehicles? The electric vehicle industry and the government agencies are pursuing a transfer and a transition of vehicle ownership from gasoline to electric, but is there enough electricity to power all these vehicles? Well, here's a couple articles from today that maybe indicate some skepticism about that.

First of all, Tesla is asking its owners to limit charging during the heat wave in Texas. And the reason why is twofold. First, with the heatwave there's a lot of electricity used by the power grid for other uses — air conditioners, lights, that kind of thing — so there's not like enough electricity to go around. The other part is when you charge a vehicle during hot weather it degrades the battery faster. So not only is it going to strain the power grid, but it can also make the Tesla battery degrade faster. And that's where Tesla is warning their drivers.

And not only are they warning them through social media or through notifications, it shows up on their screen on your car. You know if it's hot out, 90 degrees, and you go to a charging station, you're gonna get a message popping up on your dashboard saying limit your charging to relieve the power grid. So even the manufacturer is trying to keep the charging rate lower on electric vehicles. And the way they put it is they are asking owners to avoid charging during peak hours to avoid a further increase in demand for electricity.

What about in general? Well, in Michigan they're saying they're going to have blackouts in Michigan because renewable energy sources struggle to keep up with demand, and the demand for electric vehicle charging hasn't even peaked yet. Electric vehicles are about one percent of the vehicles on the road. They're 1.8 percent of the vehicles that were sold in the last year.

Even if you went up to 5 or 10 percent of vehicles being electric, how much is that going to impact and strain the power grid? I don't know the answer. I don't know if anybody knows the answer. But if the plan is to transition to electric vehicles on a large scale, it would kind of seem that having enough electricity to power these vehicles might be needed before everybody buys one and then nobody can go anywhere because there's not enough electricity.

Tell us what your thoughts are. Put messages in the comments with your opinion on if there's enough electricity to charge vehicles and whether or not an electric vehicle seems like a good idea from your point of view.