5 Later Challenges to Overcome for Adoption of EVs
In a previous post, I offered 5 First Challenges. These next five will certainly come soon after. In fact, they’re on their way now, but just haven’t gotten as much attention.
To be clear, my own prediction is for a long and gradual adoption period, allowing manufacturers, charging equipment vendors, utilities and consumers to figure things out along the way. That means we’ll make some mistakes, some vendors will fail for betting on a path that the market turned away from, and we’ll waste some investment capital. But huge technology changes always leave some amount of “stranded assets” and hard lessons learned. Examples: Apple’s Lisa computer; the Betamax; the Spruce Goose, Iridium.
So we should start talking about these challenges, in order to maximize investment and minimize risk.
1. Metering
The house isn’t mobile. When I consume energy, whether for lighting or re-charging my iPhone, my home meter is sending data to the utility to compute my bill. When I take my car on the road and re-charge at the office or a retail store, how will that be billed? There are a few possibilities, such as a credit card at the charging stand, though this adds considerably to the cost of the charging stand.
But there’s a better model out there already. Cell phones have their meter built inside – the SIM card. No matter where the phone goes, its usage is metered and billed to its owner. Why not the VIM card – Vehicle Intelligence Module – as proposed by Power Tagging, Inc.? Much simpler for the consumer and cheaper for the infrastructure.
2. Tariffs
As mentioned in the earlier post (5 First Challenges), major California utilities already offer special electricity rates/tariffs for the dedicated circuit that is the consumer’s home charging outlet. Other state commissions will need to encourage and cooperate with utilities to adopt rate incentives that influence EV owners to charge in off-peak hours and/or when green power is available.
3. Distribution system upgrade
This is worth repeating from the first list. Utilities will first spot-monitor transformers for needed upgrades to accommodate EV loads in residential neighborhoods. Many distribution transformers are probably already carrying more load than when they were first sited. Residential loads have grown dramatically from extra gadgets and bigger TVs. I doubt CFL adoption has cut back those loads enough that EVs can now be plugged in. The distribution system also needs the kind of real-time monitoring, load balancing and asset management that comes with the Smart Grid – EVs are just one more interaction with the grid of the future.
EVs should also be used for their battery capacity; that is, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for peak demand management. This will definitely require a higher level of distribution system monitoring and management, whether V2G is deployed from the home, office chargers, or airport parking lots. For this, we also need the “feed-in tariff” for V2G.
4. Connecting green power for charging EVs
One of the holdout consumer perceptions is that EVs aren’t really “green” because they are generally recharged with energy produced by dirty coal generating plants. If those big near-airport parking lots had solar panel roofs, the V2G capacity at 3:00 p.m. in Denver could really put some green power back in the system! Also, home EV charging can be programmed or signaled to occur when wind resources are available, often at night.
But whether solar or wind, we need more and smarter electricity transmission upgrades to connect green power generation to sources of demand and storage.
5. Highway taxes
For the time being, those EVs on the road are “free riders.” Literally. U.S. highway maintenance is generally paid by segregated funds that are first collected by federal government, then returned to state and local governments. Collected at the gas pump! With more EVs on the road, less tax revenue will be collected at the pump. This could be scary. Sure, there are alternatives, and some of them rather ugly. It’s time to talk about this now, before the highway tax revenue declines.
What do you think?
