#4 makes me wonder about how progress in the battery charge rate will have an exponentially greater demand on an already weak grid - the amount of current needed to fill a battery in 10-15 minutes would be double what we see today - the grid would have to be scaled even more so to handle highly fluctuating surges. Is the drive to make a better battery going to kill the EV because the grid won't handle it or be too expensive to build for such short/high demand charges that it becomes economically unreasonable?
I think the ability for EVs to charger faster will come into conflict with the ability of station operators to access larger grid connections. Just because EVs can charge up to 300 kW, won’t mean that a 20 stall station will have a 6MW grid connection. Station operators will have to manage how they spread power across stalls to control both the user experience + demand charges. That relies on load management and the fact that not all drivers show up at the same time (different power requirements at different SOCs).
I believe some organisations are developing charging stations which include local energy storage, including flywheels, so that the grid doesn't experience the full load of the EV.
The article is well written. One aspect of "Full EVs" (ie BEVs) that is often overlooked is the increased CO2 debt that is generated when a BEV is produced. That CO2 payback period can be anywhere from 2 years to 4-6 years depending on the battery size (ie car range), method to produce the EV specific materials (ex. Lithium that is sourced in Austrlias a rock with 1% lithium and sent to China for further processing has 5-7 x the CO2 footprint as lithium from Chile or Argentina (Ref-page 65 "Volt Rush" by Henry Sanderson)) and ultimate car/battery life. When you add in the national security issues with the the raw materials (esp graphite and RE materials), it seems that if you want to improve GLOBAL CO2, it would be better to incentivize Hybrids and PHEV/EREV since they save NET CO2 per unit of special material. Here is a link that you might find useful https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/why-plugin-hybrids-are-better-for-climate-than-full-evs-today and https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/infographic-electric-vehicles-need-imported-minerals.
Nice article! I have wondered for years why refueling an EV has to involve stuffing electrons into the battery (to induce the desired chemical changes). Why not just swap out the (standardized format) battery? You drive up, activate a control, and a "robot" in the trench at the refueling depot takes away your exhausted battery and plugs in a new one. Should be faster than gassing up. Zoom zoom.
One book to read about battery swapping if you’re interested is “Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World”
Personally, I think there are two major reasons.
1) A big value proposition of EV ownership is fueling at home. I think this lessened the need to re-create a gasoline-type fueling experience.
2) It would require standardization and cooperation across auto OEMs or massive infra investments from OEMs. They’ve had a hard enough time standardizing around fast charging plugs (NACS vs CHADEMO vs CCS)!
Thank you Spudster. I found your article objective and fair-minded. Too often I see polemics with a starting position - I hate EVs, or I'll hear nothing against them. I see EVs and internal combustion engine vehicles as having their own set of trade-offs and applications. As a lucky owner of both, I fear mineral requirements and grid capacity will prevent what some see as an EV utopia (and others see as a nightmare).
#4 makes me wonder about how progress in the battery charge rate will have an exponentially greater demand on an already weak grid - the amount of current needed to fill a battery in 10-15 minutes would be double what we see today - the grid would have to be scaled even more so to handle highly fluctuating surges. Is the drive to make a better battery going to kill the EV because the grid won't handle it or be too expensive to build for such short/high demand charges that it becomes economically unreasonable?
I think the ability for EVs to charger faster will come into conflict with the ability of station operators to access larger grid connections. Just because EVs can charge up to 300 kW, won’t mean that a 20 stall station will have a 6MW grid connection. Station operators will have to manage how they spread power across stalls to control both the user experience + demand charges. That relies on load management and the fact that not all drivers show up at the same time (different power requirements at different SOCs).
I believe some organisations are developing charging stations which include local energy storage, including flywheels, so that the grid doesn't experience the full load of the EV.
The article is well written. One aspect of "Full EVs" (ie BEVs) that is often overlooked is the increased CO2 debt that is generated when a BEV is produced. That CO2 payback period can be anywhere from 2 years to 4-6 years depending on the battery size (ie car range), method to produce the EV specific materials (ex. Lithium that is sourced in Austrlias a rock with 1% lithium and sent to China for further processing has 5-7 x the CO2 footprint as lithium from Chile or Argentina (Ref-page 65 "Volt Rush" by Henry Sanderson)) and ultimate car/battery life. When you add in the national security issues with the the raw materials (esp graphite and RE materials), it seems that if you want to improve GLOBAL CO2, it would be better to incentivize Hybrids and PHEV/EREV since they save NET CO2 per unit of special material. Here is a link that you might find useful https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/why-plugin-hybrids-are-better-for-climate-than-full-evs-today and https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/infographic-electric-vehicles-need-imported-minerals.
Nice, thanks for sharing!
Nice article! I have wondered for years why refueling an EV has to involve stuffing electrons into the battery (to induce the desired chemical changes). Why not just swap out the (standardized format) battery? You drive up, activate a control, and a "robot" in the trench at the refueling depot takes away your exhausted battery and plugs in a new one. Should be faster than gassing up. Zoom zoom.
One book to read about battery swapping if you’re interested is “Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World”
Personally, I think there are two major reasons.
1) A big value proposition of EV ownership is fueling at home. I think this lessened the need to re-create a gasoline-type fueling experience.
2) It would require standardization and cooperation across auto OEMs or massive infra investments from OEMs. They’ve had a hard enough time standardizing around fast charging plugs (NACS vs CHADEMO vs CCS)!
Thank you Spudster. I found your article objective and fair-minded. Too often I see polemics with a starting position - I hate EVs, or I'll hear nothing against them. I see EVs and internal combustion engine vehicles as having their own set of trade-offs and applications. As a lucky owner of both, I fear mineral requirements and grid capacity will prevent what some see as an EV utopia (and others see as a nightmare).