XHabjab
TSLA Bull
This is a very poorly researched and thought out "chain letter" and I have my doubts that it came from Toyota. There are plenty of factual errors and projections that I don't consider Toyota quality research. I call "BS" on the origin.So even in 2021 email chain letters are still a thing apparently, (haven't seen a chain letter in like 12 years) and my boomer mom, of course forwarded it to me.
We all know the American grid is trash but is being worked on, and in some cases being neglected, or in the case of nuclear power in CA not being thought about in the future as many plants we have are scheduled to go offline in the next 10'ish years. However, EV adoption is a slow process and I'm pretty confident at the current rate of adoption the grid will be fine by the time there is a mass adoption.
Below is what was forwarded to me:
[Expanding on the point made by @Twiglett ] Besides that, there are several studies out that estimate the changes in energy consumption due to electrification of the transportation industry that all debunk this flawed notion. The quick answer: the choice of ICE or EV should make little or no change to macro electricity usage. Increases in electricity consumption will indeed be seen over time, but because of increasing population and not due to change in technology, and certainly not due to a change from ICE to EV.
==> An EV does not use more electricity than an ICE vehicle.
The longer answer...
Oil & Gas: The thing we in North America call "gas" is actually an abbreviation for "gasoline". Overseas it is called "petrol". Europeans put "petrol" in their cars. We in North America put "gas" in our cars. The "gas" in the phrase "Oil and Gas" refers to produced gases such as propane, butane, natural gas (and many others) that are separated and otherwise go largely unchanged into pipelines and end up being distributed to homes for burning in a stove or furnace to heat your house. The Oil and Gas industry provides crude oil to refineries where it is refined into fuels, chemicals, fertilizers etc. The main point here is that gasoline/petrol comes from crude oil. [Americans & Canadians are confused over this "gas" thing; the rest of the world gets it right.]
Oil refinery: An oil refinery inputs crude oil, water, electricity and through the magic of chemistry, outputs gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, and various solvents, cleaners, and other chemicals (solid, liquid, gas), fertilizers (solid, liquid) and a few waste products that have to be either sold as is, changed to something else or disposed of. The bulk of the output is gasoline. Most of the processing that takes place involves distillation which requires a large amount of heating and cooling. The heat can come from either electricity or can be a parasitic process consuming some of the produced output. Most refineries generate the bulk of heat by electricity, which makes it an easier process to control. All versions of the refining process consume huge quantities of resources (electricity, water and otherwise) in producing the product. Refineries are usually seen near reliable supplies of electricity, water, pollution tolerance and political expediency.
[Lots of details omitted...]
End result: A person that sells an ICE vehicle and buys an EV and makes little or no changes to their driving needs (ie. distance, vehicle load, frequency of travel) will use about the same or perhaps less electricity from the grid as a result of the vehicle change.
An EV will also allow charging at arbitrary hours, which will allow grid stability and time based load balancing not seen with the ICE. And the EV will not consume the other resources that the refinery would use (notably, water). The air would contain less CO2 because the gasoline that would not need to be produced would also not be burned.
This also does not consider the costs ($ and otherwise) of distribution or transportation of the "fuel" to ICE vs EV vehicles, which are also favorable to the EV.
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