All these arguments might be believable if it weren’t for the clear counterexample of EV adoption in China, where EV adoption is almost 10x compared to US.
Lack of electric generation is a solvable problem, especially since solar farms take much less time to plan and build than coal plants. China installed 217GW of solar capacity in 2023, which is more than US installed in our entire history.
The cost of the extra transformers cited in the article is so trivial that it’s disingenuous. $8000 divided by 30 homes is $267 per household, or about 2 month of electricity bills. That cost can easily be amortized over a decade
China also builds ghost towns of high rise buildings and has vast junkyards of EV's. It's communism. They want to corner the market on EV making minerals, they are almost there. They have to make it seem like they work to do that deal. I hope you don't play poker.
The horribly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (Green New Deal Lite) will be be the greatest boondoggle in the history of the U.S. and likely in world history, causing a great dislocation of resources & causing great harm to vast numbers of Americans.
“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. “
This does not even take into account the increase in conductor size. The larger the transformer, the larger the conductors feeding both its primary and secondary side need to be. With the price of copper also continuing its upward climb, this is even more expense, not to mention even long lead times for some medium voltage, shielded cable.
A 50kva distribution transformer can’t possibly feed 60 homes. 50kva is roughly 210 amps at 240v. Feeding 60 homes, that’s about 3.5 amps per.
I’m a lineman, and the smallest transformer we hang is 25kva, even for single homes.
Imagine all the copper that will be required for the electric cars, the transformers, and all the other uses to which it is put.
All these arguments might be believable if it weren’t for the clear counterexample of EV adoption in China, where EV adoption is almost 10x compared to US.
Lack of electric generation is a solvable problem, especially since solar farms take much less time to plan and build than coal plants. China installed 217GW of solar capacity in 2023, which is more than US installed in our entire history.
The cost of the extra transformers cited in the article is so trivial that it’s disingenuous. $8000 divided by 30 homes is $267 per household, or about 2 month of electricity bills. That cost can easily be amortized over a decade
China also builds ghost towns of high rise buildings and has vast junkyards of EV's. It's communism. They want to corner the market on EV making minerals, they are almost there. They have to make it seem like they work to do that deal. I hope you don't play poker.
The horribly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (Green New Deal Lite) will be be the greatest boondoggle in the history of the U.S. and likely in world history, causing a great dislocation of resources & causing great harm to vast numbers of Americans.
“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. “
This does not even take into account the increase in conductor size. The larger the transformer, the larger the conductors feeding both its primary and secondary side need to be. With the price of copper also continuing its upward climb, this is even more expense, not to mention even long lead times for some medium voltage, shielded cable.
VW have announced they’re allocating €60Bn to ICE vehicle production - they get it