Metro Areas by Electric Vehicle(EV) Share of New Auto Registrations, 2023-2024

[Riverranchdrone]

Originally Posted by Gantz

Is California grid really that much more reliable compared to Texas?
Texas outages get on national news, but California literally has scheduled power outages (as far as I know, the only state that does it).
Even as I type this post, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison both have power outages. This is a pot/kettle situation in my opinion, as CA is not exactly known for a reliable grid either.

Texas is already expecting power outages in August. Depending on where you live, your power can go out a few times a week. Austin has a ton of Teslas. I see at least one or two at every intersection.

[jaxg8r1]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think charging is an even bigger issue than weather for mass adoption of EVs. Hertz went all in on adding Teslas to their rental fleet a couple of years ago and it turned out to be a huge flop. Customers actively avoided them because of the logistics for recharging vehicles.

I can only see the list the OP posted and its not there...but thanks for clarifying.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Gantz

Is California grid really that much more reliable compared to Texas?
Texas outages get on national news, but California literally has scheduled power outages (as far as I know, the only state that does it).
Even as I type this post, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison both have power outages. This is a pot/kettle situation in my opinion, as CA is not exactly known for a reliable grid either.

This sounds like misrepresentation. There are currently 8 power outages in the Bay Area. All 8 are affecting 50-499 customers each, in what appears to be tiny, sporadic sections of specific neighborhoods. 6 out of the 8 are for scheduled maintenance. The other 2 are for equipment issue. So we're talking about 3,992 customers max currently affected. In a population of nearly 8 million people. Personally, I haven't experienced a power outage for as long as I can remember, so probably 10-15 years.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by homebucket

This sounds like misrepresentation. There are currently 8 power outages in the Bay Area. All 8 are affecting 50-499 customers each, in what appears to be tiny, sporadic sections of specific neighborhoods. 6 out of the 8 are for scheduled maintenance. The other 2 are for equipment issue. So we're talking about 3,992 customers max currently affected. In a population of nearly 8 million people. Personally, I haven't experienced a power outage for as long as I can remember, so probably 10-15 years.

I never had any issues in the year and a half I lived out there but my neighborhood here...fogetaboutit. We lose power at least once a month. We had to pony up for a whole house generator because it happens so often. Unlikely to be addressed because the power lines are all buried and it would cost a small fortune to modernise the system.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by JManc

I never had any issues in the year and a half I lived out there but my neighborhood here...fogetaboutit. We lose power at least once a month. We had to pony up for a whole house generator because it happens so often. Unlikely to be addressed because the power lines are all buried and it would cost a small fortune to modernise the system.

That's crazy. I've only had one power outage in the past 18 years.

[202_Cyclist]

The NYT had an article a couple of weeks ago about two-way charging with electric vehicles that allow the vehicles to supply energy back to the grid during times of peak demand. This could allow some fleet owners with predictable routes and schedules to earn money selling power back.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/b...ries-grid.html

[SIGSEGV]

the only power outages I've had have been localized to my building (for elevator maintenance that required disconnecting mains, for some reason).

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by homebucket

This sounds like misrepresentation. There are currently 8 power outages in the Bay Area. All 8 are affecting 50-499 customers each, in what appears to be tiny, sporadic sections of specific neighborhoods. 6 out of the 8 are for scheduled maintenance. The other 2 are for equipment issue. So we're talking about 3,992 customers max currently affected. In a population of nearly 8 million people. Personally, I haven't experienced a power outage for as long as I can remember, so probably 10-15 years.

I thought we are talking about entire CA, not just the Bay. There is currently an outage in Merced.
Also, there are frequent outages during wildfires, etc.
My point is, CA is not exactly known for its grid reliability either. Texas and CA are probably one of the top most unreliable grid states in the country.

[202_Cyclist]

I wonder what the percentage of electric vehicle ownership is in Honolulu, where there is some of the most expensive gas in the country and range isn't really an issue.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by homebucket

This sounds like misrepresentation. There are currently 8 power outages in the Bay Area. All 8 are affecting 50-499 customers each, in what appears to be tiny, sporadic sections of specific neighborhoods. 6 out of the 8 are for scheduled maintenance. The other 2 are for equipment issue. So we're talking about 3,992 customers max currently affected. In a population of nearly 8 million people. Personally, I haven't experienced a power outage for as long as I can remember, so probably 10-15 years.

The last outage I had was last year or the year before, for scheduled maintenance; they were upgrading a transformer or pole or something. The outage lasted about 4 hours, and of course we were warned about it at least about a week or two before. We're OK with Edison's service; in fact we haven't paid any bills the last 2 months because we were given credits 2 months in a row. Last year we also got some free months of electricity because we also got credits. I don't know why we got them, but I wasn't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

We here in SoCal are a little "lucky" in that we aren't under the monopoly of PG&E, which supplies power to the northern two-thirds of California (I think). SoCal Edison serves Greater LA, but there are a number of publicly-owned/municipal power companies---Los Angeles DWP, Pasadena Water and Power, Burbank Water and Power, Glendale Water and Power... which serve their respective cities. Sometimes they sell their power to Edison areas; this is what helped SoCal avoid the power crisis and rolling blackouts of 2000-2001, when California also went through a bit of deregulation, but then the power companies were re-regulated and it seemed to have taken care of that era's power crisis.

California is also tied to neigboring states' grids, unlike Texas, which is basically on its own grid, no? I don't know if that makes Texas' grid more, or less, reliable than California's, but I think we have the backups that Texas doesn't. But I could be wrong.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

California is also tied to neigboring states' grids, unlike Texas, which is basically on its own grid, no? I don't know if that makes Texas' grid more, or less, reliable than California's, but I think we have the backups that Texas doesn't. But I could be wrong.

Yes, that's correct. CA shares its grid so it can fall back on other states whereas TX is SOL if something happens and it did a few years ago.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Gantz

I thought we are talking about entire CA, not just the Bay. There is currently an outage in Merced.
Also, there are frequent outages during wildfires, etc.
My point is, CA is not exactly known for its grid reliability either.

An unreliable power grid would be one that regularly fails to produce sufficient power to meet demand. Scheduled maintenance, emergencies like large wildfires, and scattered, localized outages at any given time do not relate to the reliability of the power grid. It's not the state's fault when some speeding yahoo knocks down a power pole, which is what caused the last power outage I endured.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Gantz

I thought we are talking about entire CA, not just the Bay. There is currently an outage in Merced.
Also, there are frequent outages during wildfires, etc.
My point is, CA is not exactly known for its grid reliability either. Texas and CA are probably one of the top most unreliable grid states in the country.

There are currently multiple power outages in NYC. In fact, according to this, there's currently more people without power in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, than both California and Texas.

Also, there are frequent outages during hurricanes, etc.

By your cherry picked metrics, New York must have one of the most unreliable grids in the country.

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by Gantz

Norway is a small country and Oslo is practically a village. People there drive like 5 miles on average, I don't think they have range anxiety.

mentioning oslo was probably the wrong comparison, was just trying to relate city to city. the whole metro of oslo is only about 1.5M people (out of a country of 5.5M) and i would imagine that most people who have cars are not in the city or even the metro.

seems to be hard to find good comparison data, but i did come across this: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar4.htm (quite out of date, 1997)

i would assume sweden is fairly comparable to norway, and it's not that far below canada, which is also not that far below the US. would be interested to see more recent data though.

here's another source, more recent. norway is somewhat lower than its peers, but it's not like 1/10th of what murcans drive https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/co...ita_in_europe/

one more, from 2020. residents of denmark drove on average 14000km a year (8900mi), sweden 11000km (6835mi)

[Trae]

Originally Posted by craigs

An unreliable power grid would be one that regularly fails to produce sufficient power to meet demand. Scheduled maintenance, emergencies like large wildfires, and scattered, localized outages at any given time do not relate to the reliability of the power grid. It's not the state's fault when some speeding yahoo knocks down a power pole, which is what caused the last power outage I endured.

Sounds like Texas for the most part.

[FromSD]

If the California grid has a reputation for unreliability, it might be due to the period during the first George W. Bush administration when there were rolling blackouts for a period following the deregulation of the private utilities (PG&E, SCE and SDG&E) in the late 1990s. Natural gas supplies to the state were manipulated to limit the output of gas-fired power plants, which in turn raised the price of electricity (especially on the spot market) in the new unregulated market.

Which is not to say that the California grid is without problems. The state has been quite aggressive in authorizing the shutdown of ageing gas-fired power plants in anticipation of new supplies of electricity from wind and solar. But power generation from those sources obviously lags once the sun sets and afternoon winds subside. During summer heatwaves the utilities are stretched to their limits in the late afternoon and early evenings, and customers are encouraged to turn up their thermostats and avoid using major appliances. But at least during the last two summers, I don't recall hearing about any blackouts because electricity supply failed to meet demand.

[ChrisLA]

I’m not surprised by California too. I’m not sure about other cities but I think most of our buses are electric, and on Friday I took public transportation, part bus and the subway to one of our offices in downtown LA. On my way home I had to transfer to the Orange line in North Hollywood. This line runs like a train and usually they come quite frequently because it’s a major transfer point and this is where the subway terminates. This particular time we were waiting a long time so the crowds were getting bigger. When the bus came and boarded it was stuffy and people were complaining to the driver about turning on the a/c. Well come to find out the bus being electric was low on the charge and the driver told everyone if he turn on the a/c we wouldn’t make it very far, he said he was at 35%.

I just thought that was funny, as I never ever heard of a bus low on fuel and may not make the full trip. It was actually really nice weather in downtown LA, but the Valley was pretty warm, perhaps 90 degrees still at 6pm. I don’t know if there are charging stations at the layover but I also wonder if running the air conditioning cause the charge to go down quicker. It seems like the all electric buses would be able to run all day. Anyway there was another bus directly behind us so some passengers were getting off at different stations to board what I’m assuming was running the a/c. For me I was just too tired and I only had to go three stops which was about 10 minutes.

[The North One]

Highly doubt EV share will get any higher than this anytime soon if ever. Not looking good for EVs.

[veep]

California hasn't had regular power outages for twenty years. I can't remember the last time we had one in my residence. Has to be at least 15 years ago.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by The North One

Highly doubt EV share will get any higher than this anytime soon if ever. Not looking good for EVs.

I think they will eventually increase but not on the timescale the industry or lawmakers want.