Canadian auto industry should be mandated to sell electric vehicles: parliamentary report

Greaser · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Canadian auto industry should be mandated to sell electric vehicles: parliamentary report

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

Are the feds going to pay municipalities to upgrade their electric infrastructure? In my previous home a neighbour installed solar panels on his home. Another house on our road inquired also about a solar panel grant and was told that the current grid in the area was at capacity for solar installations. This was in 2013, but I dont see any changes to the infrastructure since then. What happens when people plug all these electric cars in every night. And with the electrical rates in Ontario it might be expensive to charge your car with the additional charges on our electrical bills.

Paul

mike667 · Poncho Master!

Prefectca wrote:
Are the feds going to pay municipalities to upgrade their electric infrastructure? In my previous home a neighbour installed solar panels on his home. Another house on our road inquired also about a solar panel grant and was told that the current grid in the area was at capacity for solar installations. This was in 2013, but I dont see any changes to the infrastructure since then. What happens when people plug all these electric cars in every night. And with the electrical rates in Ontario it might be expensive to charge your car with the additional charges on our electrical bills.

Paul

Exactly!!

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I can see them needing to coming up with strategies to control the metering of the charging current. You will have a set time for your local optimal charging. Plug in before or after and you'll not get the full current. We know the entire grid cannot be loaded at the same time, it can't handle it. Imagine an entire province, every home, adding a new oven and turning it on fully at the same time in the summer. The steel mill I worked at would have to shut down their electric arc furnace during peak summer demand, and that would apparently "only" give back the load of 60,000 homes or so. This new phase in will have to come in gradually. But it will happen.

Off peak storage, when that tech becomes a reality, could really help with the load issue. It would be the key.

Also, as a cherry on top, be ready for a slew of new heavy taxes on the bill. That much is sure.

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

I dunno. Denmark now has more EV's than ICE vehicles and the grid there seems fine. Maybe it was in better shape than ours to begin with? PEI was in panic mode a few years ago fearing all those people going from using oil furnaces to heat pumps would cripple the grid. Now they offer rebates for heat pumps lol. Wouldn't having more solar panels on roofs negate some of the extra load from EV's charging?

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

IMHO, a lot of fear is driven by resistance to change.

A new technology is coming, which will result in change. We can't avoid it, it's happening now. It will continue to happen into the future.

There will be problems discovered during this period of change. We will solve the problems. It's the same cycle that has been continuing for a couple of hundred years since the industrial revolution at least, and probably before that.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I actually don't have a problem with it. I welcome it. Just don't get how we will have the capacity for it.

classic · Veteran Member

It wasn't that long ago the regulators thought this problem needed another solution...propane! Canadian Government vehicle's were using propane on Parliament Hill, City of Ottawa used propane, at the time our regional government used propane vehicles, taxis were converted to propane and service stations installed huge propane tanks. How's that working now?

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Dont worry, be happy. The government will not be out front on this one, they havent even got together to mandate a common charging plug for electric vehicles.

What will power electric vehicles (pun intended) is making them work in our normal lives, range wise and fast charging wise. Like the heat pump in your house, it now works great at a reasonable cost, low actually, and provides AC. For those of us who have only oil heat or electric heat at high rates, the heat pump was wonderful. No government mandating needed. Same will happen with. EV.

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

classic wrote:
It wasn't that long ago the regulators thought this problem needed another solution...propane! Canadian Government vehicle's were using propane on Parliament Hill, City of Ottawa used propane, at the time our regional government used propane vehicles, taxis were converted to propane and service stations installed huge propane tanks. How's that working now?

Dont forget natural gas vehicles. They had to have dual fuel capabilities due to the lack of range. There were a couple at where I worked in the mid eighties. An S-10 and a Chevy van. The tanks werent supposed to be in the passenger compartment. The S-10 had the tanks in the box, but the van had them standing up behind the drivers seat! To get around the regulations the tanks inside the van were installed with the valves down through the floor with all the high pressure plumbing underneath the floor. The pressure when the tanks when full was around 2300 psi.

Paul

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I think the main difference between propane and natural gas is that there is huge momentum worldwide for the transition to EV. It's not a government pet project, or an R&D experiment by an automaker. Almost all of the car companies have EVs in development, and some of course already have them in the dealerships. Not just the plucky startup companies but the big ones.

Then there's the bonus that EVs are much simpler mechanically than ICs...

We'll see where it goes, but I agree with Don... don't worry be happy. Somebody will work out the problems with the grid, and if not we'll get a good laugh about how foolish and ill prepared they have been. I still have all gasoline powered vehicles in my fleet and will not make the move until there are well-developed EVs that are bug-free out there with fast charging and no range issues. Or, it will all blow up and I won't have to change a thing. aww

HK1837 · Addicted!

Its not just the grid, its the generation. Unless you charge your EV from your rooftop solar, the extra load of every car in just about any country (regardless of what country) charging at the same time will mean there isn't enough generation capacity, let alone the grid to get it to the houses where the vehicle is plugged in. Lets face it, mots people will get home after work and plug their car in at the same/similar time. This is the big flaw in the push for EV's. As MC says, there will be a solution somehow, but I believe it will be a left field solution that doesn't involve building more nuclear/coal/gas power stations or tripling the poles and wires. It'll be a new generation of batteries, green hydrogen or similar.