AN has a very interesting article out, today, 11/15/20222,

Electric truck stops will need as much power as a small town

The real challenge is how quickly high-speed chargers will need to deliver electricity at a single place and time.

I wonder how much money will need to be invested in each truck stop, and how this will affect the cost of goods (inflation) delivered to virtually every American. I'm sure it is going to be Great. According to Bloomberg's reporting, it may cost $10,000,000 for the electric grid upgrade for Each Truck Stop, this would NOT include the charging stations etc. this is the "power to" only. In our new Inflation Reduction Act, buying one of these electric Semi's qualifies you for a $40,000 Tax Credit! I'm guessing every dollar of that will be needed by the truck owner. What a Great Time we live in.
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You mean that something might have to be done for this all to work?

We're doomed.

 

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I don't think the sky is falling, but I'll bet the price of electricity is about to take a steeeeep turn upward. Just think, a couple of years ago, if someone were to have pointed out, gas will be going north of $5.00/gal in many states, diesel could go over $7.00/gal, someone could have posted the "sky if falling..." and gotten a good laugh. Problem, those that laughed, may have stopped laughing, one thing is for sure. We didn't hear from too many of the laughers (hope that is a word) later on, definitely not one, "Damn I was wrong....", that would be asking tooooo much. In Great Britton, they have faced the problem of electricity delivery in the same way we are going to have to do, they have Stopped any new homes in large grids. While GB actually produces enough electricity, they do not have the necessary capacity on their "neighborhood" grids, just as we don't. It appears there is enough current available to run to truck stops, but the cables, and transformers etc. are just not there, the truck stops are not ready, and in some places they may not have enough electric. I took a look at one of Americas busiest Truck Stops to see how many trucks it has every day, average around 5000! (Iowa 80 Truck Stop), IF (really big if) there were an exact steady flow, for charging stations,24 hours a day, and it took one hour from the time a truck pulled up shut down, climbed out etc. and got charged, and pulled out, was exactly one hour, not one second more, the Truck Stop would have to have 209 charging stations (208.3), again this is if no one ever waited for a charging station, each truck arrived at the exact time another pulled out. That $$$$ for this many Big Truck Charging satiations would amount to a big chunk of change. The big semi-trucks will take a lot of juice to recharge, imagine the amount power necessary to keep all 209 chargers cranking 24-7! This will not include all the other stuff found at truck stops. I'm thinking long term, copper may be a good buy, as it has been off for the last couple of years.

 

With these nearly hourly doom predictions and statements disguised as questions how EV's will ruin the USA from top-to-bottom because we currently cannot fulfill predicted demands of electricity 12-15 years distant does anyone here remember when gasoline and diesel re-fueling consumer locations came into being? Was the same sort of hand wringing and Chicken Little concerns also expressed?

No we're not prepared to meet all the bold and unfounded predictions of how wide spread EV's are or will be in the future but it does seem there is some movement by municipalities and utility companies to improve the number and location of charging stations whether they're "free" or for-profit. It does seem there is also movement towards developing improved home charging stations that are easily installed without requiring out-of-reach electrical renovations.

No I'm not a candidate for an EV due a lack of desire and that I require a "large" ICE vehicle to ply my trade. I'll be long retired from that by the time--if ever---a suitable replacement for the E-Series vans become available. Adding in so far I've seen next to nothing about EV's being impossible to re-charge however trip planning is becoming more and more important for longer trips that exceed the full charge distance.

 

Is it?

I read the article yesterday and thought it was a good read. It stated the issue while providing context sans hysterics. Here's a relevant bit 2/3rds of the way down the page:


And here's a link to the article for anyone who wants to read it.

 

I have nothing to add other than this picture is really well done and compliments to the creator. They took a lot of time and paid attention to detail in an effort to make it look authentic.

I guess I do have one comment. The price of everything is going up, including taxes, services, utilities and goods. Just yesterday we paid $9 for 8 sticks of butter at our discount grocery store. A year ago it was $5. Just one example out of millions.

I have no doubt electricity will increase in price over the years to come. Why wouldn't it...

 

There are signs that inflation is beginning to ease, and it's certainly not even across the board. The 2023 version of my EV6 is $1,000 more than my '22, which is a 2% increase year-over-year. I invested in a solar system because it fixes my costs for the 25-year warranty life of the system.

Of course electric rates will go up over time, they always have. But the idea that things are going to skyrocket because people will be driving electric cars isn't based in fact. I can tell you that my ownership costs are a heckuva lot cheaper than a comparable gas-powered car, and that's part of the reason my Expedition only saw ~2,800 miles over the last year. I enjoy driving the Expy, but it costs pennies to fuel my Kia. Ten years from now, I'm sure it will be at a higher electrical rate, but likely a heckuva lot cheaper than gas.

 

The facts are, some things are DROPPING in price, and when one considers inflation in the price drop, it is even bigger than it looks on its face. For Example:State of play: The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, a gauge of wholesale market prices for used vehicles, dropped for the fifth-straight month.

• Prices are down more than 15% since they peaked in January at an average of nearly $24,000.

It is easy to see- Not Everything Goes Up based on inflation. In Fact, even during this "free money, inflation is king" economy, many large items, such as used cars, are dropping, some quickly. One commodity that is Not Dropping in Price is, electricity. It appears, the law of supply and demand may still be working. I realize some think the law of supply and demand will just "go away", or," we don't believe in that anymore", but historically those that think supply and demand doesn't work, have been wrong. In the few countries where gasoline, for example, is still dirt cheap, they are not Free countries. I know many would be happy under an authoritarian rule, but for the rest of us, a free market - and the willingness to acknowledge that the law of supply and demand does in fact affect pricing- everything from chewing gum to new cars, is obvious. Just like in some of the "less than free" countries where the govt sells gas to the people for Super Cheap prices, if the govt. gave ICE purchasers $7500 to buy a new ICE vehicle, the total cost per mile Could be calculated at a much lower rate! The only fair comparison is for the govt. to take its fat finger off the scale. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the govt. has its finger on the scale, and gasoline is cheap, when the free market is manipulated, no fair person could argue it is a fair comparison.

 

15% by 2040. Yup. There's no way this can happen without prices shooting to the moon.

 

Regarding your KIA EV6 or a variation of the KIA EV6, I saw an article a week or so about the price going up $7,000 for 2023. I did not post it at the time as this is a Ford Lightning forum and not Twitter (the old Twitter anyway), but I figured it would be OK at this point in the discussion since you used it as an example.

Looking further into the article, it is not a true price increase like the Ford Lightning was, at least not in my opinion. It appears that KIA has dropped the base "Light" model from their lineup.

Here is one article that discusses it that I identified after a quick Google search and not caring which article it was I was reading last week.

Link: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4...cing-increase/

On the note of everything costing more, I and hundreds of millions of others get it, we truly do. "Starting to ease" does not mean jack squat right now or for the foreseeable future though regarding goods and services that cost significantly more today than they did a year or two ago.

I will now bow out and let you two get back to it.

 

Yeah, as you can imagine, I don't agree with how they framed it. They never released a model breakdown, but it seems like the base trim level is as rare as hen's teeth.

Cars seem to be coming down in price as inventory rises, though. I checked yesterday, and the local megadealer that I bought my '15 F150 from had 80 new F150s on the lot. They had 95 on the day I bought mine from them in 2015.

 

I have to wonder how many responsible humans who actually pay a power bill and or pay attention to the same have upgraded their homes to LED lighting, bought new appliances, new HVAC systems, added more insulation, changed windows, roofing materials, siding materials, etc.

I refuse to believe that in a time when EV's are coming into their own that our grid will be any more stressed 10 years from now than it is right now.

How many EV's will be plugged in during the work day which is the hottest part of the day in the hot areas and during the summer? I'll wager hardly any unless someone is traveling.

In my case, my weekly commute to work is 155 miles which means that I could reasonably re-charge on Sundays only and have enough juice for my weekly drive to and from. I certainly don't stop at the gas station every day, I stop once a week.

 

I guess you think, ten years from now with nuclear plants closing, the war on coal and oil, new power generation will have been solved, wind and solar will run the country, and the grid will have been upgraded to every home, thus allowing for and accomadating an unseen and unplanned power demand? Remember, Global warming? If all the "experts" are correct, there will be a need for a much more power availability - just to run the massive AC power requirements! In fact, some of the "experts" claim, in ten years we will all be dead from Global Warming-if this is correct-I agree there is no need to worry, it won't matter anyway. BTW, did you know in CA, they have just gotten the OK to destroy Hydroelectric Dams, four big power generating dams will be destroyed costing the state and fed at least $500,000,000 to do the destruction (my guess is, if the govt claims it will cost five hundred million now, it will cost five billion by the time it's done). I haven't read how they plan to make up the power generation loss, I'm guessing they'll put up some solar panels?

 

I'm guilty of all of the above as far as my home goes with the addition of a 6kW solar array and my weekly commute is 17 miles (seriously) walking distance to work. I fill up about once every 2 months or so depending on how spirited my driving is and if I go out of town which is rare. Probably only need to recharge an ev twice a year lol.