The Elephant in the EV sales room that no one wants to talk about is the limited amount of electricity available to charge EV batteries.
JAN. 19, 2023 - OPINION - By Ronald Stein
One of the best-known quotes was "where’s the beef?" from Clara Peller who was a manicurist
and American character actress who, at the age of 81, starred in the 1984 advertising campaign
for the Wendy's fast food restaurant chain.
Today, the huge dark cloud over EV projected sales, is the availability of electricity to charge
batteries which leads us to the quote for the foreseeable future, Where’s the electricity?
The Elephant in the EV sales room that no one wants to talk about is the limited amount of
electricity available to charge the EV batteries.
Of this huge global fleet, only 12 million were electric vehicles (EV) in 2021. Thus, less than
one percent of the worldwide road vehicle fleet were EVs, and more than 99-percent of the
global fleet was “yet to be replaced”.
After over 15 years to large subsidies and increasing regulatory requirements seeking to promote
EVs, less than one percent of the world’s road vehicles are fully electric. Today, even with less
than one percent of the vehicles on the roads being EV’s, there is a limited amount of electricity:
During a California heat wave in September, 2022, Governor Newsom, the same guy that
wants to ban the sale of gasoline cars after 2035, asked owners not to charge their EV
batteries.
The UK is ahead of most of the world, protecting its electrical grid with Smart
Chargers, and setting up Separate Meters for the EV charging users to pay for a new
grid!
1. Smart Chargers: As of May 30, 2022, in the UK, new home and workplace
chargers being installed must be “smart” chargers” connected to the internet and
able to employ pre-sets limiting their ability to function from 8 am to 11 am and 4 pm
to 10 pm. In addition to the nine hours a day of downtime, authorities will be able to
impose a “randomized delay” of 30 minutes on individual chargers in certain areas to
prevent grid spikes at other times.
2. Separately Metered: The UK Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 came into force on 30th June 2022. All home installed electric
vehicle chargers are required to be separately metered and send information to the
Smart meter data communications network. Potentially this legislation allows the
electricity used for charging EVs to be charged and taxed at a higher rate than
domestic electricity. The technology enacted also enables the rationing of electricity
for EV charging because the government can decide when and if an EV can be
charges, plus it also allows the EV battery to be drained into the grid if required.
As the ”net zero” efforts move forward to reduce emissions at any cost with closures of coal,
natural gas, and nuclear power plants in favor of massive building plans for unreliable wind and
solar facilities utilizing breezes and sunshine for intermittent electricity, the dark cloud Elephant
in the Room may be getting darker in the years ahead.
The intermittency of electricity generated from breezes and sunshine has resulted in the
“nameplate” generating capacity of wind turbines and solar panels being a “farce” capacity to
replace continuous uninterruptible electricity generation from coal, natural gas, and nuclear.
Subsidies for wind and solar power plants are based on “nameplate ratings”, thus they should be
penalized when they cannot deliver what they have been permitted for.
As more EV’s, the other 99 percent of the 1.446 billion global fleet that have “yet to be
replaced”, will be attempting to get a charge from electrical grids around the world that are
incapable of meeting growing demands for electricity, the proverbial question will be “where’s
the electricity”?
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--By Ronald Stein Pulitzer Prize nominated author, and Policy advisor for The Heartland Institute on Energy
