Is the US facing major EV home charging problems?

[JoMoney]

There are lots of problems that would come with meeting some of the goals and projections for EV vehicles. Including things outside the home like the capacity of "the grid" itself https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... ar-AAXsHfT
Outside of increasing nuclear power (which I'm not dismissing as an option) we don't have a source of energy considered "green" with the ability to provide the amounts of energy needed, which taints some of the environmental arguments for EV, as does the mining of materials to create batteries at the scale needed....
And what do we do with the gasoline if it's not being used by cars? Refining petroleum is still going to be needed for lots of other things. Gasoline started as a byproduct of refining oil to kerosene and was burned off as waste by the refiners until finding/creating a market to sell it as a fuel for automobiles.
Early automobiles went through numerous ways of being powered, along with gasoline evolving in the market as an extremely efficient way to do it. I'm expecting lots of "problems" and unexpected consequences of trying to force the change. If EV transportation scaled to what gasoline powered transportation is today, the cost of electricity would rise substantially and the cost of gasoline fall dramatically. The economics of it putting substantial counter-pressure to the attempted changes by fiat.

[VG81]

I recently (Feb. 2023) received the following quote of $5,463.00 to upgrade from 100 amp to 200 amp:

Code: Select all

200 amp underground service upgrade:
- supply and install 200 amp underground meter socket/pedestal.
- supply and install a 200 amp main breaker 42 space panel.
- All piping and wiring included for panel upgrade
- supply and install (2) 8’ ground rods per code
- supply and install main water ground per code
- supply and install all breakers sized per code
- supply and install intersystem grounding bridge per code
- supply and install (1) gfci receptacle under panel per code
- label all circuits in panel per code
- includes electrical permit and electrical permit fees
- all coordination between power company, inspector, [companay providing the quote] and
homeowner will be handled by [companay providing the quote]'s office

[Pdxnative]

to add...

Charging at home with a 110 outlet would not be viable, in my experience. It would take a Tesla nearly two days to go from 20-80% (roughly calculated)

Sure, but for a typical commuter driving under ~40 miles a day and plugging in at night the battery wouldn’t ever get to 20%. It would be at 80% every morning.

That’s what we did for years before installing L2 when we went all EV and it worked great. I do like having the L2 but it’s sort of a luxury more than a necessity for most folks I think.

If what you’re pointing to is a situation following a longer drive with only one night turnaround then I agree a L2 or fast charger will be necessary.

[Dakotah]

to add...

Charging at home with a 110 outlet would not be viable, in my experience. It would take a Tesla nearly two days to go from 20-80% (roughly calculated)

But you don't need to charge it to 80% before using it. Only drivable range matters...and if you average less than ~50 miles per day, you'll never exhaust your range with trickle charging overnight. Even if you periodically diverge to the high side of that...a single visit to a supercharger will replenish your range buffer. You can do a lot of supercharger visits for the cost of a panel upgrade.

Yes, a L2 is beneficial...but living with only a trickle charger is quite feasible for a lot of people.

[Normchad]

Add to that, there's other costs such as many EVs go through tires much faster

I didn't know this.

Why do EVs go through tires faster?

They don't use the same type of tires that many passenger cars use because they are very heavy vehicles to begin with and thus the tires wear out faster. They also do more damage to a roadway vs. their ICE cousins.

Amazing to me how easily de-bunked anti-EV talking points keep getting repeated.

Weight of Tesla Model 3: about 3700 lbs, not much more than the almost identically dimensioned BMW 3 series, at about 3600 lbs.
Weight of my 2020 Kia Niro EV: about 3800 lbs, again not much more than the same-size Mazda CX-30, at about 3500 lbs.

Yep. It’s total nonsenses.

My long range Model 3 weighs less than a Honda odyssey minivan.

the original tires were not anything special. And I replaced them with run of the mill type tires you’d put on any other car.

And at least in Virginia, I do pay extra for registration to make up for the gas tax I don’t pay.

[Pdxnative]

Depends on how much you drive around town.

I have a Tesla and charge at home with a regular wall outlet (120V) and it gives me about 40 miles of range every night, which is 14,600 miles per year. That is plenty for me. If you drive more miles than that on a daily basis, you’ll want a more powerful home charger.

On long trips, I use the Supercharger network, which is simple and fast.

Contrary to what you hear (from non-EV owners), the number of chargers around town is irrelevant. You will NEVER charge your car with anything other than your home charger within 100 miles of your home, so there doesn’t need to be “as many chargers as gas stations”. It’s like your phone, you just plug in every night. Totally different mindset than a gas car.

This is very insightful.

I'm like you, where I don't travel much outside of my daily work, gym, errands, home routine. I'm around 11k miles a year. I can trickle charge at work as well (12-13 hour shifts). So I don't even need to buy the home charger, I'll just have an electrician install a regular outlet on the front of my house.

Thank you!

Maybe you should change the thread title to “rumors of major EV home charging problems couldn’t be more wrong”

But seriously, I think what you’re discovering is that a lot of the supposed challenges of EVs are pretty easily addressed by most people. Every conversation I have with skeptical ICE owners starts with range. Then people realize it doesn’t matter because they typically drive less than they think each day. Then the concerns are about charger availability until they realize they will almost always charge at home. Then the concerns are about L2 charger costs until they realize that they either don’t need one or that, between federal tax credits and utility subsidies, it is actually very cheap. Then it’s about taking trips and it turns out that’s not the hassle they’ve been led to believe by other non EV owners. Then it’s about the need for special tires which it turns out isn’t really a thing after all.

In your case it sounds like you can charge at work and that will cover a good chunk of your needs. Is that electricity free to you and did you factor that into your math?

[Normchad]

to add...

Charging at home with a 110 outlet would not be viable, in my experience. It would take a Tesla nearly two days to go from 20-80% (roughly calculated)

But you don't need to charge it to 80% before using it. Only drivable range matters...and if you average less than ~50 miles per day, you'll never exhaust your range with trickle charging overnight. Even if you periodically diverge to the high side of that...a single visit to a supercharger will replenish your range buffer. You can do a lot of supercharger visits for the cost of a panel upgrade.

Yes, a L2 is beneficial...but living with only a trickle charger is quite feasible for a lot of people.

I lived with the trickle charger for about 9 months. It was completely fine. But I had to do it everyday. Using the normal wall outlet added about 5 miles of range per hour. So plugging in for 10 hours would add about 50 miles of range.

I added the L2 charger to my garage. It’s basically just adding the same kind of plug that a clothes dryer would use. I only charge once or twice a week now. It uses far less electricity overall than my central air conditioning.

[anil686]

JMO but understanding your range and your needs is definitely the way to approach EV purchasing and charging. Most people are not going to need a range of 300 miles so picking a smart EV for your needs should be the best idea. I have a Tesla Model 3 I drive but I drive it 35,000 miles per year - I love the range but I have charged outside my house once this whole year and that is when I forgot to plug in the car at night. For those who drive a lot less, an L1 charger (home outlet) probably is going to be sufficient with L2 charging as needed. For example, I saw Creed III last night and the movie theater I go to has free L2 charging - that added 75 miles in range in the 3 hours we were there. Hope that helps…

[Broken Man 1999]

A question: I believe I have read Tesla has built many charging stations, and is still building. What number of individual chargers are usually found in a Tesla charging station?

Broken Man 1999

[jebmke]

A question: I believe I have read Tesla has built many charging stations, and is still building. What number of individual chargers are usually found in a Tesla charging station?

Broken Man 1999

I've seen a wide range. At local gas stations (mini-mart chain) I've seen 3-4 at some and over a dozen at others. In my area they are mainly along the routes from CD/Baltimore to the beaches. If it weren't for the beach traffic there would be a lot fewer.

[jpdion]

When my L2 charger was installed, the electrician had to pull a permit and a county inspector had to inspect and approve the installation.

[Normchad]

A question: I believe I have read Tesla has built many charging stations, and is still building. What number of individual chargers are usually found in a Tesla charging station?

Broken Man 1999

I've seen a wide range. At local gas stations (mini-mart chain) I've seen 3-4 at some and over a dozen at others. In my area they are mainly along the routes from CD/Baltimore to the beaches. If it weren't for the beach traffic there would be a lot fewer.

Yep. I don’t use them often, it when I do, it seems like there are typically 8 stalls. But I’ve seen pictures of major ones that look to have 30 or so.

Tesla cars are always connected to the network. So Tesla has tons of information on where the cars go and what state or charge they are at etc.. they use all these data to figure out where it makes sense to build new superchargers. And of course they also know for all the existing superchargers, the utilization and congestion.

[Normchad]

When my L2 charger was installed, the electrician had to pull a permit and a county inspector had to inspect and approve the installation.

Yep, that kind of work would require a permit everywhere in the US.

[Agent 99]

A question: I believe I have read Tesla has built many charging stations, and is still building. What number of individual chargers are usually found in a Tesla charging station?

Broken Man 1999

It depends. Check out this map and tap on a site for details.

https://www.tesla.com/findus?v=2&bounds ... op%2Cparty

[enad]

Add to that, there's other costs such as many EVs go through tires much faster

I didn't know this.

Why do EVs go through tires faster?

They don't use the same type of tires that many passenger cars use because they are very heavy vehicles to begin with and thus the tires wear out faster. They also do more damage to a roadway vs. their ICE cousins.

Amazing to me how easily de-bunked anti-EV talking points keep getting repeated.

Weight of Tesla Model 3: about 3700 lbs, not much more than the almost identically dimensioned BMW 3 series, at about 3600 lbs.
Weight of my 2020 Kia Niro EV: about 3800 lbs, again not much more than the same-size Mazda CX-30, at about 3500 lbs.

Check your facts. Per this article Tesla vehicles weigh from 2723 to 5390 pounds.

The Model S Weight ranges from 4,561-4,786 lbs
The Model 3 Weight ranges from 3,582-4,065 lbs
The Model X Weight ranges from 5,185-5,390 lbs
The Model Y Weight is 4,416 lbs

Our gasoline burning cars come in at around the weight of a 2-seat Tesla roadster but can sit 5 or 6.

[enad]

I didn't know this.

Why do EVs go through tires faster?

They don't use the same type of tires that many passenger cars use because they are very heavy vehicles to begin with and thus the tires wear out faster. They also do more damage to a roadway vs. their ICE cousins. At the moment there is no way to tax them for that damage i.e. they don't use gas so they don't pay for gas taxes at the pump. Eventually someone will have to figure out a way to collect taxes from EV owners to maintain the roads. Last time I checked those vehicles used to maintain a roadway still pollute a lot and now they'll be repairing the roads more frequently i.e. causing even more pollution.

Hmm. How about tanker trucks delivering gasoline to the 100k+ gas stations across the country everyday. Think those have any impact on pollution or road damage?

You're right, but it's not that simple. Consider the total cost of an EV from the increased mining/pollution costs of an ever decreasing supply of raw materials for the batteries which drives the price up of batteries used in other applications like smartphones, and laptops, etc ... Then there is the increased cost of production of EV vehicles and the energy involved. One study suggested a break even point between 50,000 miles and 75,000 miles before an EV will have an overall impact on the environment. You'll never be able to get completely away from gasoline/diesel as many of them also deliver other goods and services that stock our stores and factories. An EV may sound great for some people who can afford it but it's not ready for the masses just yet and the overall costs on the economy and environment are difficult to calculate.

Yeah…all of that outweighed by tanker trucks fo sho

Gas trucks transporting gas to put in tanks for gas cars. Can’t imagine anything more ridiculous.

And yet the world has been doing it for more than a hundred years. How did it every get by, right?

[enad]

MA charges an annual excise tax for all vehicles, including EVs.

Is it a flat fee or based on miles driven?

Once a system can be put in place that is similar in all states and at the federal level, many of the perceived economic advantages of an EV will start to disappear.

ACs are usually humming away down in the South during the summer.

cool the house at night or charge the car and be miserable at night. Tough choices

We’re not exactly talking about unsolvable problems. My 1929 house had a service panel upgrade, from 80 to 250 amps, back when I wanted to run the AC on my motorhome a few years back. It wasn’t really that big of a deal.

If your house was built in 1929 and had an 80A panel it may have been upgraded in its past. I can think of several neighborhoods in our state where many homes have 30A or 60A service and many still use knob and tube wiring. None of them are ready for panel upgrades. I think EV's are still for those who are somewhat wealthy

No, it wasn’t. The original service was 80 amp, and the house still mostly had the original wiring. 1929 is new enough that they weren’t still doing knob and tube.

If you don’t want an EV, don’t get one. That doesn’t mean they aren’t a good idea, or that it isn’t the way things are going in the future.

Do you have a ground wire in your home i.e. from the panel to all the fixtures?

[tonyclifton]

I received an initial quote this week of $3,500 to upgrade. For most Americans, that's very expensive. I'm also having a difficult time with electricians not returning my calls/texts. Seems they are all very busy already.

Unfortunately, cost me more...Because my garage is detached so a trench needed to be dug. My home is over one hundred years old. When we re-did the electrical back in 2007 we "upgraded" from a SquareD breaker box to modern and safe 100 amp service. Would have cost almost nothing to go to 200 amp service at the time.

And, if you think $3500 is expensive...Wait until you try to buy an EV! I am almost at the 1 year mark waiting for my EV "order" to be delivered. It is not a Tesla.

[randomguy]

Based on the prices of most EVs being sold, I doubt those various costs are a huge factor for many buyers.

yes; and other factors. Good to have aspirational crossover dates I suppose but I think they are optimistic.

My guess is they are off by 10 years. One more halfing of the cost and some density increase starts making them much cheaper than ICE cars for 80% (most people aren't driving 600miles in one shot like all the ice advocates do) of use cases and when we go from like 3% of cars being EVs to 20% things like apartments/work places installing chargers and the like all start making sense. I can totally see why post 2030 companies will switch to just maintaining their ICE lines and stop developing new models. You can have a good business dominating a dead market but it tends not to be a growth one.

[Jack FFR1846]

MA charges an annual excise tax for all vehicles, including EVs.

Is it a flat fee or based on miles driven?

Once a system can be put in place that is similar in all states and at the federal level, many of the perceived economic advantages of an EV will start to disappear.

MA excise tax is based on the MSRP of the vehicle based on the model and trim level. 2.5% of that value. All vehicle values are on a set scale year to year. So (from memory) 100% first year, 90% next and so on. There is a minimum. My trailer, for example is $5.

In MA, I'd certainly focus on the "perceived economic advantages of an EV" because it's not difficult to find an ICE car that costs far less than an EV per mile to drive. Our electric bills are riddled with fees. So the total cost to customers per kWh changes monthly based on how much you use because some are flat fees and some are based on use. My February bill dropped a lot per kWh. Only 41.6 cents a kWh this time. I got gas in Worcester last week for $2.89 a gallon. My Crosstrek manual gets 35 mpg during the summer (we have summer gas and winter gas). We also have net metering in MA so if you have solar panels outperforming what you use, you sell back into the grid at a high payback, so it might not make financial sense to use that to charge your car because you can sell the electricity for more and pay less for the ice car. I'll do the math again because people always challenge my claim that my Crosstrek does better than a Model 3 single motor.

Crosstrek $2.89/g / 35 mpg = 8.26 cents per mile

Model 3 single .25 kWh/mi * 41.6 cents/ kWh = 10.4 cents per mile

I've also mentioned my co-worker's new Camry hybrid whose spread sheet shows a consistent 59 mpg (summer)

Camry $2.89/g /59 mpg = 4.9 cents per mile. Less than half the cost of the Tesla.

I'm also sort of surprised you only have a 100A service. Our house in Hopkinton was completed in 1984 and it had a 200A service when we bought it in 92 from the original owner.

[02nz]

Add to that, there's other costs such as many EVs go through tires much faster

I didn't know this.

Why do EVs go through tires faster?

They don't use the same type of tires that many passenger cars use because they are very heavy vehicles to begin with and thus the tires wear out faster. They also do more damage to a roadway vs. their ICE cousins.

Amazing to me how easily de-bunked anti-EV talking points keep getting repeated.

Weight of Tesla Model 3: about 3700 lbs, not much more than the almost identically dimensioned BMW 3 series, at about 3600 lbs.
Weight of my 2020 Kia Niro EV: about 3800 lbs, again not much more than the same-size Mazda CX-30, at about 3500 lbs.

Check your facts. Per this article Tesla vehicles weigh from 2723 to 5390 pounds.

The Model S Weight ranges from 4,561-4,786 lbs
The Model 3 Weight ranges from 3,582-4,065 lbs
The Model X Weight ranges from 5,185-5,390 lbs
The Model Y Weight is 4,416 lbs

Our gasoline burning cars come in at around the weight of a 2-seat Tesla roadster but can sit 5 or 6.

All of those curb weights are within 10% of same-size ICE cars. The X, for example, is a large 3-row SUV, 3-row ICE SUVs also weigh 4500-5000 lbs or more.

The Roadster from over a decade ago weighed about 2700 lbs. Even compact cars today are heavier than that, so please do name an ICE car on the US market today that seats 6 (as you claim) and weights 2700 lbs. No, strapping your fourth kid to the roof of a 10-year-old old Civic doesn't count.

[bighatnohorse]

Upgrade the panel.
EV's are the future and who'd buy a house with a 100 amp panel?

[mhalley]

Night time charging is better right now, but what happens when EVERYONE is charging their ev at night? Many places are having problems with their electric grids already. Plus, what do us apartment dwellers do? And the people in northern states with freezing temps and no garage? Exactly how much lithium and other metals etc is there that can be mined before we run out? It seems to me that we are heading a little too fast towards evs. I know it will be years before everyone has to have one, I just don’t think the infrastructure is there yet for mass adaptation. I fully expected my next car to be an ev, but now that I don’t own a home it’s a totally different proposition.
GM, all electric by 2035
Volvo all ev by 2030
Toyota 2040
Mercedes 2030
Just doesn’t seem feasible to me in this time frame.
Article on the need for major recycling to not run out of ev materials
https://blog.ucsusa.org/jessica-dunn/ar ... es-needed/

[02nz]

Night time charging is better right now, but what happens when EVERYONE is charging their ev at night? Many places are having problems with their electric grids already.

A typical EV using L1 (110V) charging gains about 30-60 miles of charge overnight, more than enough for the average American driver. That EV draws about 1KW while charging - about the same as a couple of gaming PCs. Are you concerned that gaming PCs are going to bring down the power grid? And do you believe that the power grid will not need any upgrades, in the absence of EVs?

[oxothuk]

When my L2 charger was installed, the electrician had to pull a permit and a county inspector had to inspect and approve the installation.

Yep, that kind of work would require a permit everywhere in the US.

No, not everywhere- wasn’t required by my electrician. Might be required if you have to upgrade the panel, but more often than not the electrician can find space in the panel or can replace older breakers with smaller new ones.

[muffins14]

I’m your OP you said that
1) it would cost $3500 to upgrade the electrical
2) your state gives a $3500 cash bonus to people who buy EV

It sounds like it is effectively free, so I don’t think it will be a barrier to adoption, especially if, as people mentioned, you can charge the car successfully with older systems anyway

[quantAndHold]

Is it a flat fee or based on miles driven?

Once a system can be put in place that is similar in all states and at the federal level, many of the perceived economic advantages of an EV will start to disappear.



cool the house at night or charge the car and be miserable at night. Tough choices

We’re not exactly talking about unsolvable problems. My 1929 house had a service panel upgrade, from 80 to 250 amps, back when I wanted to run the AC on my motorhome a few years back. It wasn’t really that big of a deal.

If your house was built in 1929 and had an 80A panel it may have been upgraded in its past. I can think of several neighborhoods in our state where many homes have 30A or 60A service and many still use knob and tube wiring. None of them are ready for panel upgrades. I think EV's are still for those who are somewhat wealthy

No, it wasn’t. The original service was 80 amp, and the house still mostly had the original wiring. 1929 is new enough that they weren’t still doing knob and tube.

If you don’t want an EV, don’t get one. That doesn’t mean they aren’t a good idea, or that it isn’t the way things are going in the future.

Do you have a ground wire in your home i.e. from the panel to all the fixtures?

I have no idea why any of this matters to the discussion of the mechanics of installing car chargers, but the original wiring is BX, so the outlets that are still wired with BX are grounded on the grounded pipe that the original wire runs through.

At this point, we’ve rewired about 80% of the house as part of other projects over the years, but when we first moved in 25 years ago, the electric was all original, except for a couple of outlets and a newer subpanel.

We don’t have an EV yet and have no need for an L2 charger, but if we did, we’d just get it installed. None of this is that big of a deal.

[mbltna]

Wanted to point out that there is also a “middle ground” for at-home charging (at least with Tesla - dunno what options are for others). We started with a normal 5-15 plug (~3 miles/hour) but then went to a 6-20 plug (same wiring, but two 20 amp breakers) and get ~14 miles/hour. Simple upgrade without an impact on the panel, beyond an extra breaker, giving plenty of charge overnight for even “long drives” around the area.

While a normal trickle charge worked well, this simple upgrade took away any lingering anxiety about charging at home. A full L2, while nice sounding on theory, never even enters our thoughts since the 6-20.

[Pdxnative]

Night time charging is better right now, but what happens when EVERYONE is charging their ev at night? Many places are having problems with their electric grids already.

EVs will be, and already are in some cases, part of a smarter grid that involves distributed power. Part of the reason local utilities are subsidizing EV adoption is that future vehicle to home and grid, along with home battery backup (for which EVs will work), will allow optimization of energy flows and a better functioning, less vulnerable, electrical grid. There is some infrastructure investing to be done, sure, but that is necessary anyway.

Seriously, if the grid is a concern you should be welcoming widespread EV adoption. Even the lowly Nissan Leaf has had vehicle to home capability since 2014. It’s just that Nissan never developed a bidirectional charging cable for home use. And even now, my local utility has the capability to work with my smart charger to throttle EV charging when they want.

It won’t be any different than the way your iPhone currently manages charging, except that increasingly the EVs will be able to provide power to house or grid during peak demand.

[hunoraut]

The Model S Weight ranges from 4,561-4,786 lbs
The Model 3 Weight ranges from 3,582-4,065 lbs
The Model X Weight ranges from 5,185-5,390 lbs
The Model Y Weight is 4,416 lbs

Our gasoline burning cars come in at around the weight of a 2-seat Tesla roadster but can sit 5 or 6.

You know someone is honest when they compare a low-volume roadster that hasnt been made in literally over a decade, to their passenger vehicle.

Now try a Model X against a BMW X5, or Model S against an E class, or Model 3 against Audi S4…or tell us the weight of the #1 selling vehicle in America

[Callisto]

One thing that has not yet been mentioned yet but I think is very important is charging efficiency.

Teslas use an industrial watercooling loop for the computers whenever they are on, such as during charging. This draws a surprising amount of power.

Smarter people who have looked into this have indicated the resulting charging efficiency ends up being 85% with standard 120v 15a, vs 94% using 240v 50a.

I ended up going with a NEMA 14-30. Completely unnecessary from a range perspective but it was cheap to install.

[Agent 99]

Perhaps this discussion needs to focus less on the individual vehicle owner and more on the public policy approach to moving toward widespread electric vehicle usage. According to the study quoted below workplace charging and/or reducing the carbon intensity of the grid, ie, the fuel generating the local electricity (coal, nat gas, nuke, solar, water) appear to be the most critical factors resulting in emissions reduction. The Feds, State and Local governments may decide not to subsidize home charging if more modeling studies like the one quoted below (abstract and conclusions copied) yield similar results. Why should government implement supportive home EV charging technology when the impact on emissions is minimal or results in more emissions?

This study was completed prior to the pandemic. Now that work from home is significantly more prevalent workplace charging might become a relic of the recent past.


https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publica ... impact.pdf
PHEV - Plug in hybrid EV; BEV - Battery run EV; PEV - plug in EV

Abstract
With the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the transportation sector, policymakers are supporting a multitude of measures to increase electric vehicle adoption. The actual amount of emissions reduction electric vehicles provide is dependent on when and where drivers charge the vehicles. This analysis contributes to our understanding of the degree to which a particular electricity grid profile, the vehicle type, and charging patterns impact CO2 emissions from light-duty, plug-in electric vehicles. We present an analysis of anticipated emissions resulting from both battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for four charging scenarios and five electricity grid profiles. A scenario that allows drivers to charge electric vehicles at the workplace yields the lowest level of emissions for the majority of electricity grid profiles. However, vehicle emissions are shown to be highly dependent on the percentage of fossil fuels in the grid mix, with different vehicle types and charging scenarios resulting in fewer emissions when the carbon intensity of the grid is above a defined level. Restricting charging to off-peak hours results in higher total emissions for all vehicle types, as compared to other

Conclusions
This study analyzes the emissions associated with electric vehicles, with consideration to the vehicle type, the carbon intensity of the grid, and the charging infrastructures and patterns employed. It uses a novel methodology that allows us to consider not only the emissions resulting from charging the PEVs, but also the emissions associated with the miles driven on gasoline. The emissions are calculated for a defined set of trips taken by multiple vehicle types, using anticipated 2025 vehicle efficiencies.
Our analysis suggests the following conclusions:

• The carbon intensity of the electricity grid has a greater impact on the total emissions associated with electric vehicles than does the charging scenario. However, differences in emissions between charging scenarios are detectable, with advantages of each differing somewhat according to the carbon intensity of the grid.

• Notably, PHEVs yield lower total emissions than BEVs in four of the five grid types. The low-carbon grid is the only case in which BEVs have lower total emissions. This is due to our inclusion of non-electric miles in the calculation of total emissions. PHEVs have a higher mile-per-gallon efficiency and their non-electric miles have a lower carbon intensity than BEV non-electric miles (which are driven in a conventional vehicle).

• Workplace charging results in the greatest percentage of electric miles for both BEVs and PHEVs and consistently results in lower total emissions across all charging scenarios, with exceptions only for high carbon grids.9

• The emissions benefits of workplace charging increase as the carbon intensity of the grid is reduced. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the Workplace charging scenario continues to result in the least emissions, even when the carbon intensity of the grid varies substantially. However, the larger number of electric miles afforded by workplace charging can result in higher total emissions than other charging scenarios on high carbon grids.

• Of the charging scenarios studied, time-restricted charging results in the lowest number of electric miles and the highest level of emissions for most grids and vehicle types.

• Looking across all of the vehicle types, charging scenarios and grids studied, a BEV using time-restricted charging on a high carbon grid results in the highest level of emissions.

• A BEV using workplace charging on a low carbon grid provides the greatest emissions reductions as compared to driving a conventional

Resulting policy and technology considerations include:

• Changes in carbon intensity of the grid impact the emissions associated with workplace charging. This supports the notion that encouraging increased renewable energy in combination with increased workplace charging can have a significant impact on emission reductions associated with electric vehicle deployment.

• Based on the assumptions used in this analysis, the wide-spread use of workplace charging could be expected to reduce emissions associated with electric vehicles on grids with an average carbon intensity of less than 1.5 lb CO2/kWh.

• Regions with carbon-intense electrical grids will realize little (or even negative) benefit by switching from home charging to workplace charging. Policies to reduce grid carbon intensity may provide greater value than policies to promote workplace charging.

• Restricting charging to off-peak hours results in higher total emissions associated with PEVs. This is, in part, a consequence of the reduced number of trips that PEV drivers can comfortably make when charging is restricted to off-peak hours. This result suggests that existing policies and utility rate structures that encourage off-peak charging may lead to higher emissions associated with PEVs than policies that support daytime charging. Altering the times that charging restrictions or special PEV charging rates are in place to increase flexibility may reduce the negative impacts of time-restricted charging on emissions. More analysis of the impacts of time-restricted charging on specific electric grids could help to both reduce the grid impacts associated with increased levels of PEV charging as well as maximize emissions reductions.

9 Our results support the conclusion of Parks et al. (2007) and Denholm et al. (2013) that the availability of daytime charging increases the percentage of miles that PHEVs drive on electricity, resulting in greater petroleum displacement.

[TierArtz]

Was easy for us. Bought a Tesla Model Y in February. A Tesla-approved electrician (found on Tesla’s website under “charging”) installed a L2 Tesla wall charger (48A 240V) for $550 - right beside a panel in the garage of our 2004 era home). Signed up for the local EV plan with a super off peak rate. Now the car, dishwasher, dryer, and pool floor cleaner charge/operate at the lowest possible rate.

[LadyGeek]

I removed an off-topic post conjecturing on global warming. This thread has run its course and is locked (derailed on energy policy). See: Personal Consumer Issues

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