Joss with regard to electricity demand we will be fine for the immediate future. The people who run the grid reckon there will be no problem in the short term and as long as we continue with building windfarms there will be no problem in the future.
Remember many BEVs will charge at night and at the minute a lot of wind turbines are switched off at night due to lack of demand. So this additional capacity will be brought to the grid with no extra cost.
Malcolm the problem with supplying large BEV cars on the scheme is that there are not too many out there at this point in time. Tesla have shown with the model X that a large battery powered SUV is possible but look at the cost of this model.
I posted this on an other thread but seems it may be applicable to this thread also.
“Dave in the rush to zero emissions all of what you have listed may play a part, however battery electric cars are likely to continue as the number 1 option. As you and many others have indicted charging is a major downside to EV’s, especially away from home. However if you look at filling up using hydrogen or LPG things are massively worse and even allowing for the superior range of these cars you would find it almost impossible to run one on a daily basis.
I read most weeks about the next “super dooper” battery that will charge in 5 minutes and run for 500 miles on a single charge, but we are not there yet. I do believe, however, that within the next few years the breakthrough will be discovered and we will look back and smile and remember when you got 100+ miles on a charge and you where worried about putting the heater on in case you got stranded in the middle of no where.
All over the world £billions is being spent on battery technology, Tesla have recently made a few company acquisitions that is likely to see them continue to dominate EV’s for the foreseeable future. At the moment they are way ahead of everyone else and I don’t see that changing.
The big jump in battery technology will likely be to solid state batteries, these batteries can charge fully in a few minutes, give 500+ miles on a single charge and last for many years before being fitted into your house to store all that lovely green energy from your local wind turbine.
I also see the use of super capacitors playing a major part in EV’s, they take a charge very quickly but use that charge quickly. They are well suited for use when accelerating as they provide lmmediate power and can be replenished using the brake regent system. Tesla have recently purchased Maxwell technology a Canadian company who specialise in super capacitors.
Interesting times I think.”