Unless they improve the recharge speed or dramatically improve thr power density, we're gonna have ICEs for a long time. Electric vehicles are not good in cold weather, they so far have not proven themselves to be capable of long haul towing (battery life drops off precipitously while towing), there is not enough charging ports or parking spots for hundreds of millions of cars to recharge, emergency vehicles cannot depend on EV (you can't wait for an ambulance to recharge for 45 minutes). Also, power grid constraints. California recently asked electric car owners to not charge at certain times of the day. This, in spite of the fact that electric cars are still in single digit percentages of ownership. This is unacceptable and it's very clear the grid is not ready to support it.
In the extremely contrived example where two calls come in back to back from locations that are 400 miles apart, the need to charge an EV in the middle of driving for 6 hours straight is going to be a pretty minor factor.
Lol maybe take a look at Canada where towns are 100km apart and an ambulance can potentially be driving constantly on an 8 hour shift. Not to mention the Fact they have huge alternators on them to power all the medical stuff.
>there is not enough charging ports or parking spots for hundreds of millions of cars to recharge
Most people drive so little, they could recharge once a week. And I doubt they couldn't do it neither at home, nor the office, nor the supermarket, nor anywhere else.
Stores will do everything to have people charge at their parking. Remember when hotels made people pay for Wifi? I do.
Norway is small (1700km N->S, but a fraction of that E->W.) One can drive it's entire length in a day or two. It is barely half the size of Texas. Nor is Norway very cold. Because it is so close to the sea, temperatures rarely drop below -10c.
>> Unless they improve the recharge speed or dramatically improve thr power density
That may be the doomsday scenario. Imagine we had a new battery tech today that could cram 1000+miles into a car in say 5 minutes. EV sales would spike. ICEs would disappear. Then everyone would get their new EV home ... and the national electricity grid would collapse.
It's not like everyone who drives an EV recharges their full battery capacity every day. And besides, home charges are typically level-2 charging from a 220V outlet, and they charge overnight. DC fast charging in homes basically doesn't exist, because the expense of the electrical service you'd need to do that doesn't make sense unless you're putting the fast charger somewhere where it will be heavily used.
Grid upgrades are a thing that's going to have to happen, but I think the concern is kind of overblown. It's not like everyone is going to switch to EVs at the same time, and over the course of a decade or two the utilities can use the increased revenue they're collecting to upgrade their infrastructure as needed.
We're going to need more electricity production to offset the increased demand. Some of that might be offset by residential solar.
Interesting perspective. Another view: solar panels on your roof, using your car battery for your house nighttime needs means that during doomsday your energy intensive lifestyle doesn't have to change at all.
Ah yes, the roof of my building where I'm on a middle floor. I'll start lobbying the board to install solar for just me to use.
The problem with a lot of this is that the more "responsible" you're already living, the less reasonable the next "responsible" thing is to do. Going solar/off grid is only really possible if you live on a lot of land where you're the only resident, which is otherwise generally not recommended. If you live in dense housing, you probably don't have solar, let alone a way to charge an EV. I park my current car 100-500 feet from the nearest outlet that I own. There's essentially no world I could buy an EV and not have to charge it for hours outside of my home.
The efficient future is here, but it's for the rich who did all the garbage NIMBY stuff that made it necessary for everyone else to have to live "efficiently" to make up for their gluttonous use of land/power over the past decades.
It is dangerous to assume that everyone lives in a house with a roof, or that they are free to reconfigure thier home's electrical systems. I certainly cannot.
Well if you live in an apartment complex, I'm pretty sure storing large amounts of gasoline in your apartment isn't allowed either, so there's not a difference.
