UK’s National Grid Does Some Mythbusting – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 16th February 2025, 11:11 am

One of the most common nonsense things we hear about EVs is that electric grids can’t support them. After all, it takes a lot of energy to move a vehicle and its cargo, and if everyone did that with electricity, all of the energy coming from oil today would have to come from the electric grid! On hot afternoons and cold nights, we also know that the grids are often stressed to the max, so common sense dictates that adding any more load would be a disaster that leaves us all freezing or frying to death. Right? RIGHT?

There’s just one problem with all this: it’s not true. At all. And now we have more proof from the UK’s National Grid!

Before I get into the latest from the UK, let’s first review the facts that are so conveniently ignored by grid alarmists. For that, we have a great video from Engineering Explained that explains it in detail:

In short, the problem is that most people have an overly simple understanding of both EVs and the grid. They also lack understanding about how ICE technology actually works, which is a bit ironic because they’re advocating for that in their own sneaky way.

Before we even get to the grid, we have to address the easy to miss problem of actual energy usage. ICE vehicles burn fossil fuels to create mechanical energy, but this means generating a lot of waste heat. This isn’t a problem because ICE vehicles have liquid cooling systems with large radiators. A lot of energy even leaves the engine directly, and hot exhaust gases take away even more wasted energy. The only upside is that heating the interior of a vehicle is pretty easy, as you can harness the waste heat for this.

EVs don’t produce much waste heat. After considering regenerative braking, about 90% of the energy in batteries ends up becoming mechanical energy that moves the vehicle! In the winter, this means some range loss because there’s no waste heat to run a heater, but the fact still remains that EVs use less than 1/4 the energy ICE vehicles use to travel a given distance. Going back to the grid, the small amount of energy needed to charge an EV amounts to drying clothes on most days for most drivers.

The other thing the “grid can’t handle it” crowd fails to consider is that EVs don’t have to charge during the worst peak times when the grid is strained. By simply getting most EV owners to plug in at night or at another time when the grid has extra capacity, the problem can be solved. How do we get EV drivers to do this? By using proven lower pricing during the best times. Problem solved!

Other things to consider is that the grid has faced challenges for growth before, and power companies have always been in the business of serving customers’ needs and wants. It’s literally their job and it’s how for-profit utilities make a buck. Unless you can convince capitalists to stop liking money, this won’t be a serious problem.

Going back to the UK, there’s even more information to consider. National Grid explains that the transition to EVs can be managed, and it doesn’t happen overnight. As EVs slowly join the grid to charge at night, the entity has been working on adding more resources, especially renewables, to the grid.

National Grid also busts other myths, like the idea that there aren’t enough chargers or that EVs don’t have enough range. They also point out that EVs don’t need an equivalent amount of power to burning fossil fuels directly. But, you’ll have to visit their mythbusting post to get all of those details.

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba.