Hacker News Reader

Comment by lnsru | Hacker News Reader

It’s absolutely unrealistic dream removing all petrol and diesel cars from the roads. And politicians know that very well. The charging infrastructure must be built at first. I moved to a nice village this year in wealthy region in Germany. And guess what, the cables between substations and houses are often 50-60 years old. There are mostly 2-3 cars for each house. Normally a house with 2 cars needs additional 50 kWh every day (no statistics, just a guess). Assuming that these cars will be charged 10 hours during night and ignoring losses every house needs thicker cables for additional 5 kW power. I here not willing to start with energy generation issues. I am not so sure about large scale electric vehicle adoption in Germany in close future. My neighbors just laugh when I mention interest in Dacia Spring or electric Twingo.

View on HN

If you and your neighbors can run an electric kettle while having a pie in the oven without a blackout, the local grid is strong enough to support electric car charging during the night when fewer kettles and ovens are operating.

The real issue is building enough charging points in cities where people don't have access to a garage, but that's just a matter of investing some money and will happen naturally as demand picks up.

Heat pumps are coming too as green heating technology. These devices are power hungry too: https://myhomefarm.co.uk/air-source-heat-pump-electricity-co... and they didn’t have -10 degrees Celsius for a month. But you are right otherwise. I could charge my Renault Twingo or Dacia Spring even using this heavily outdated infrastructure. These are cars with small batteries and not much power.

I think for many people this problem would be partially solved if employers provided the possibility to charge your car at work (some do already). Many companies are located in industrial zones where the connection to the grid is better.

A positive side effect: if the companies in the industrial zone have large-scale solar panels installed on their roofs, the load on the grid and power plants could be reduced (at home, people usually charge their cars at night).

Sounds like a perfect solution to me, which means there is something wrong in my reasoning :)

> It’s absolutely unrealistic dream removing all petrol and diesel cars from the roads.

When I hear people say these sorts of things, I always imagine someone from the end of the 19th century complaining about removing horse carriages from the roads being totally unrealistic. You know, all this gas infrastructure has to be built and ...

Gas infrastructure is few underground barrels. That’s no brainer. My house had this 20 years ago for diesel heating. Many houses still have this with up to 8000 liters diesel in basement. I have basement with weird height just for storing diesel tanks. Now they are gone, basement is useless. For electricity you need miles of thick copper cabling. And as a bonus grid needs to be managed to avoid blackouts and other issues.

> Gas infrastructure is few underground barrels.

I am not sure if you are being serious.

In 2050, you need to heat your house with something that is not fossil fuel. Realistically, that requires electrical connections to be upgraded anyhow. No problem adding a bit extra for EV.

Assuming that cars are used on average 20000 km per year, then you can charge a Tesla 3 for 10 hour per night, 1 kW. Of course you would need to use a fast charger if you want to make long trip.

In most places to day, there should be 1 kW at night.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com