Featured Options to generic public chargers

Definitely interesting ideas. However, I feel the US still has quite a bit of room to just mass install charging stations in parking lots. Except in very dense urban areas, parking is pretty ubiquitous either at people's home or at their work. Its likely we can get 75%+ coverage with just parking lot charging stations.

 

I had a test at Riverside Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. As I drove up to the second level of their parking deck, one whole side was marked "Electric Vehicle Only". Most of the spaces were filled with Tesla's, Toyota's, Chevy's, Hyundai, Kia etc.

Times, they are a changing!

 

The only downside is that Ohio's electricity grid is still roughly 40% coal: Ohio - State Energy Profile Overview - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

At that level, BEVs should still beat gassers in environmental performance. However, its a close call.

 

Compare Side-by-Side


Even in ohio (you can plug the numbers)
The tesla model 3 standard plus is 150 grams of co2
The prius prime is 180 grams of co2 while the really good

Toyota camry hybrid is 234 grams of co2.

The bev and phev are likely to get better as time goes on and home owners can charge mostly on solar (that is what I do - 100% at home, 70% on public chargers) making the numbers much lower. The more popular non hybrid camry is 317 g co2/mi more than double the tesla on the ohio grid. Its not low enough to trade in a prius, but something to consider for the next car.

 

The Fueleconomy.gov comparison is a bit incomplete (it only includes the tailpipe CO2 + CO2 from upstream production of the electricity/gasoline). Including the full life cycle of BEV vs Gasser does narrow the BEV CO2 advantage a bit. From this study: https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/TE%20-%20draft%20report%20v04.pdf



On the high end, a BEV using coal-fired electricity is likely worst than a gasser. My rough estimate from the above graph, a BEV powered by <80% coal electricity should probably be better than an equivalent gasser. However, I would probably not charge my Prime in any state with >50% coal powered electricity just to be safe.

 

Again, I was using real figures for Ohio grid with real vehicles although these are EPA estimates and YMMV . Most people have been using the figure that a bev will take 1 metric ton of co2 more than a similar ice vehicle to manufacture, but that depends on how you manufacture, and the tesla figures I've seen from 2017 actually produced less co2 to manufacture and fuel (included energy in super charger network but not the energy to build them) in its network than a typical ice vehicle and that was for the model S and X. The model 3 is lower.

Since you used ohio as an example that is higher than the national average and a prime in ohio will produce 180 grams of co2/mile about the same as West Virginia which is 92% coal + some renewable on a combination of gas and electricity. That is lower than the prius's 207 g/mile so go a head run it all over the country. Now if it really does take a metric ton of co2 to build the prime versus the prius (I doubt it) then it would take just 37,000 miles using the epa's mix to make up the co2 in production.

 

Our forward thinking legislators in Ohio pushed through Ohio House Bill 6. It would provide $150 million per year between 2021 and 2027 from ratepayers to First Energy Solutions to keep the Perry Nuclear Power plant and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants open. The bill also provides $20 million a year to keep two unprofitable aging coal fired power plants open. Part of the funding would reduce the Ohio Renewable Portfolio Standard initiatives. There was a $1.1 billion dollar natural gas electrical generation plant being built in Ohio that is on hold now because it was expected to replace these 4 facilities to shut down.

I have mixed feelings about the nuclear plants. They are running well beyond their design life but at least they are low carbon electrical power generation.

As far as the unprofitable coal plants being subsidized at the expense of a new natural gas plant and reducing the Ohio Renewable Portfolio Standard initiatives, I am at a loss but money talks. First Energy has been one of the state's most prolific political donors.

Ohio has the most stringent windmill siting regulations of any state.

 

With all the pipelines crisscrossing Ohio now it wouldn't surprise me if they are using some of those pipelines to transport that pollution and stack gasses to a smokestack in another state.