Assuming the neighborhood power lines can support the load. Which mostly won’t be the case.”

Ah, but the neighborhood power lines are operating at far less than half capacity overnight, so the utilities could deliver more power to more homes without changing the infrastructure a whit. They would do so, of course, by offering “off peak” rates to encourage people to do discretionary electrical activities overnight. Perhaps running the dishwasher or washing machine, although those are trivial. You know what’s not trivial? Charging up an EV.


In any place with significant nuclear power or windpower, there tends to be a tremendous amount of baseline electricity production that utilities have a hard time using profitably. Even if and when 100% of vehicles are electric, there should be no problems with power lines supporting the load, as GH says. American homes use an average of about 30 kWh a day, with peak use of about 2-4 kWh/h mornings and evenings and much lower rates, like 1-2 kWh/h at night. People drive about 50 km a day on average, requiring about 13 kWh of electricity to recharge. Adding 1 kWh/h overnight will not put a strain on power lines, even if everyone had an EV. In fact, this would be a big help to utilities in balancing out the much higher daytime demand.

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