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Originally Posted by Dave20046
I don't think the impact and cost of the infrastructure needed should be underestimated. Hotels and service stations aside, the draw a car charger port takes is massive - if every house hold did it (over night) I don't think the grid could keep up...I also wonder if the street cabling could take it!
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The national grid have said on multiple occasions that the grid has the capacity to cope. Especially so as most people will charge overnight when load on the grid is much lower. e.g.
https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories...ehicles-busted
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave20046
My main concern is the fact that I don't think battery technology is quite there (hopefully would be soon?!)
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What is the concern here? Most EV manufacturers offer an 8 year warranty on the battery / drive train. Charging is up to 350Kw now (Taycan) although rare. Ranges up to 400 miles on a charge are now available.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave20046
We've gone from burning fossil fuels to mining lithium (also finite) and burning fossil fuels to charge the lithium.
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Batteries are recyclable and all the lithium can be recovered and re-used. So while it is a finite resource, we should be OK. The use of cobalt in EV batteries is going down as we find new chemistries and will be eliminated very soon. The cobalt is also recoverable.
There is no doubt Tesla leads the way in mass market battery technology but others are catching up. If the 'glass battery' can be proved and produced in volume, it will change everything.
UK energy mix is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, but not as heavily as people think. The UK has not burned any significant coal to generate electricity since February and that's a good thing as coal is the dirtiest and least efficient fuel. Wind and Solar now account for the majority of power in low demand periods. The government's Green Strategy announced yesterday will direct a lot of investment into getting the green power up towards 100%. A usefule link to see how we are doing.
https://gridwatch.co.uk/