Electric Vehicles Suck (A Lot of Electricity)

By  by Bennett Gordon
Published on January 13, 2010
article image

Electric vehicles are coming to the United States. If steps aren’t taken, though, the cars could cause blackouts and may not help the environment as much as promised. The new EVs need a lot of power to charge, and people want their cars to charge quickly. Turning on just one EV charger “is like adding three new homes to a neighborhood,” according to IEEE Spectrum, “and that’s with the air conditioning, lights, and laundry running.” If there were an influx of new EV cars, it would put a massive strain on the power grid–especially street-level transformers–and could cause blackouts.

And where does the energy come from to power all those cars? About half of electricity in the United States currently comes from coal power, and that won’t likely change with the introduction of the new cars. So unless big changes are made soon, the new EVs won’t be all that green.

Source: IEEE Spectrum

UTNE
UTNE
In-depth coverage of eye-opening issues that affect your life.