2022 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

All Content > Enterprise News Story > Heartland

Awarded to

Larry P. Vellequette, Reporter

Entry details

The disconnect in our grid

Issue or publication date: 7/19/2021
Publication name: Automotive News
Publishing/parent company: Crain Communications
Website home page: www.autonews.com

About the publication's mission and readership:

https://www.autonews.com/advertise

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

One of the big questions surrounding the country’s transition to electric vehicles is whether the grid has enough capacity to support them. Automobile manufacturers, retailers and parts makers are betting billions of dollars that EVs will be a practical solution for consumers and fleet operators. Will the addition of potentially millions of EVs be a strain on the system? Dealers in California, which is one of fastest-growing states for EV sales, have expressed concern.

Automotive News posed this question to stakeholders in the energy and automotive industry, plus the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. And we examined the structure of the country’s major regional grids. We found that grid capacity is not the obstacle. The main issue is whether there will be enough places for people to plug in their vehicles.

Using an online tool created by the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, we ran a simulation that assumes just 10 percent of 2016’s light-vehicle population in a metropolitan area is replaced with mix of battery EVs with ranges of 100 and 250 miles and plug-in hybrid vehicles with electric-only ranges of 20 and 50 miles. We ran the simulation in nine large metropolitan regions, plus Billings, Mont., and Topeka, Kan.

The tool compares the need vs. the number of public chargers available. With the exception of San Francisco-Oakland, we found those areas are dramatically lacking in stations. We mapped this data in a print graphic and an interactive online map that helps our readers visualize this need.

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/disconnect-our-electric-grid

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