this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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You're repeating big oil talking points. We improve the grid all the time, we can continue to do it. Sure if all cars were magically converted into EVs tomorrow we would have big problems, but that's not how the real world works.
If the grid actually was about to fall over because of a few more EVs, these datacenters spinning up all over the place would be even bigger disasters than they already are.
Got news for you with the Datacenters…
I'm not using big oil talking points. I'm saying in reality, because of the damage that big oil has done to keep us from going electric, the infrastructure is not currently there.
They've paid money to keep us from expanding our grid. They are saying it won't work because they are making sure it doesn't.
I completely agree with you that I think it is absolutely possible, but there are bigger things blocking the way.
This is a pretend problem. When have EVs ever caused rolling brown outs?
Grid can't handle the current of all the cars charging at once? Charge them slower. Get a battery bank for your home to smooth out the demand curve. Throw banks of supercaps at fast charging stations. Fix the fucking grid as you go. Use battery banks on the grid to even out demand at any level. Hell, you can use the cars themselves as battery banks and bring back rooftop solar tax breaks
It's a fake problem, our grid and production do genuinely need work, but in practice EV adoption hasn't been a limiting factor at all
I'd advise anyone considering buying a battery bank to look at this one simple metric:
Take the price of the battery bank, divide it by the total number of kWh that the battery bank will source to your electric devices over the battery bank's lifetime. That should give you a figure of $ per kWh that you can compare with what you currently pay for electricity.
Anytime I have run that exercise, the battery bank is costing me near or more per kWh than I pay for electricity from the grid, even if I am charging the battery for free (which is never the case, even with solar there's a cost of installation and maintenance.)
If you want the battery bank for grid independence, it'll do that, but know there's a cost.
If you live in some crazy demand variable tariff area where you pay $0.20 more per kWh during peak than you do in off hours, the battery may make financial sense for you there, particularly if you can sell power back to the grid at peak tariff rates during peak hours.
Most people: batteries are a waste of effort that don't save you money, plus they have the added thrill of being a non-zero risk source of a signifianct fire.
Charge during non-peak hours. Demand on the grid fluctuates over the day, use it when it's not in use.
A lot of the US has flat electricity tariff rates 24-7.
By repeating their talking points, you are arguing that we should slow EV adoption. You are literally doing their work for them. At least if you worked for BP you could cash a pay check, you're out here working for them for free.
My dude is that what I said?
I am very anti-big oil. I also acknowledge the fact that big oil has fucked us.
I think if we can break away from their stranglehold on the industry, we can expand our grid and make EV happen. We also have a very large country with nothing in the middle. There are states without any electric chargers installed. It's a very big hurdle.
I never said we should slow EV adoption. If anything, I think they need to give everybody an electric car for free and make solar panels standard everywhere. But that's not going to happen because of capitalism.
Name one state with no EV chargers.
Fuck y'all are so fucking pedantic.
Okay, maybe every fucking state has a charger. But some places have not expanded, especially to rural areas.
Jesus fucking Christ. Y'all can't read extrapolation.
Never comment on anything on the internet. Fucking assholes like y'all chase down every goddamn word.
Maybe don't spout bullshit to make your point and people won't call you on it?
Just a thought.
I mean you can keep being blatantly wrong and then being a big baby when called on it. It just makes you look like an over-emotional asshole.
Hey bud, thanks for the criticism.
I'm gonna go back to my IRL life now.
This is a US map of dots. The dots are charger stations, not individual chargers.
Yeah, you should probably mean what you say and say what you mean when having a conversation. You have no idea what the current state of ev charging infrastructure looks like, but you're still acting like an expert.
not PC but, I mean I can tell you the state I live in the closest EV charger is an hour away if that helps your data set on infrastructure knowledge. That's my primary reason I have no current interest in EV. I firmly agree infrastructure is not there at this time for it in this state. Maybe in the future it will but until I can easily charge my car either at work or without an hour detour it's a hard not happening for me.
being said, it has gotten better over the last few years so maybe soon?
Does your situation not allow a plugin ev? You don't need to rely on a charging station. There's a good video about people's "range anxiety" and breaks down why home charging is adequate for nearly everyone
I had thought about it when i was thinking of getting an EV prior. The answer is "yes", technically, but I don't find it cost effective to do so. I don't own the building, or pay power utility, its bundled in my rent, and whatever power solution I installed would need to run roughly 150-200 ft feet across a lawn and part of an active driveway to get to my designated parking area(I had considered over or under but that also adds cost). Said parking area has already been designated as non-negotiable as the closer parking is strictly for the landlord's wife who has mobility issues(fully valid). On top of that I have been instructed to not put a constant load on the outdoor outlet, it according to them has high wear on it and they are worried about the risk of putting something constant on it because it used to run as an input for a generator that ran higher than what the line was actually rated for(old building, was before the requirement of a bypass switch, they used to just kill the main breaker before turning the generator on and then reversing it when the main had power again) and almost burned it out, so any solution would be either rewiring the outdoor outlet line from the fusebox on, or installing a dedicated charger line for it and then running it across prior distance. (which I had at one point thought about)
technically possible, but I don't think it's cost effective to do something like that, especially considering even if given permission, it's for a property I don't own and don't know how long I would be living here.
Should have linked this earlier, but adding it now anyways https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity-locations#%2Ffind%2Fnearest%3Ffuel=ELEC There are very few places in the US where you can be an hour away from the nearest charger.
It's also kind of a strange situation to explain to people who are used to fuling up at gas stations. I almost never use the fast chargers near my house, I can fill up way cheaper, and way more conveniently at home. The only time I start thinking about fast charging is when I'm driving more than 300 miles in a weekend.
yea those charts can be deceiving at times though , charge finder said I had one within 35 minutes I looked at what it was, the station it said is the old town house, and that's been disabled/damaged(the charger not the building) due to vandalism since mid covid and was never fixed. The other option shown is the high-school but it's restricted to students and Staff only and is parking pass enforced. I could likely abuse it via visitor pass, but that's still 40 minutes to get there, time spent charging and then 40 minutes back. They had a town vote to install a community one a few years back at a town meeting but, there wasn't enough local support for it to get on the official vote.
Being said, it must be nice having the luxury of charging it at home. I don't have such luxury.
Me? An expert? A guy who commented on a Lemmy post??
I said fuck the rich and y'all attacked me for being a shill for big oil.
Get out of here with that bullshit.
So now you're just lying, maybe I was wrong and you are getting paid to post this.
You could also be like James May, who daily drives an EV and has a hydrogen car. And also states that the charging takes too long and it's not convenient for, say, younger people who cannot afford a house. So anyone under 40 these days.
I'd absolutely get an EV for a daily. But not at the apartment I live at. I literally cannot charge it at home and you'd be wrong if you think I'd go out of my way to have to plan to charge it for longer than it takes to just put gas in an internal combustion car.
You can be critical of something that you want to succeed. I'm probably most critical of things I enjoy, because I know a lot of them can be better.
EV adoption should be increasing, especially for normal daily driver cars. It'll let the weekend cars live longer as well. Win win.
This is only fresh in my mind because James put out a video, quite literally yesterday, explaining what he does and does not like about his Model 3.
You'll notice I did not argue against that point at all, not having charging at home is a huge downside and would play a big part in if someone should buy an EV or not.
"OuR gRiD cAN'T taKE iT" on the other hand is not a valid argument
Yes, agreed. That grid nonsense is something you see parroted by people who would never, ever drive an EV in the first place.
In the words of Gene Wilder, "You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons."
What would happen if multiple people plugged in toasters every morning at breakfast time? ANARCHY.
The UK has issue with everyone turning on their electric kettle during the ad breaks/half time/whatever they have of football games.
Yes, you are. The grid is in no way blocking you. You are repeating propaganda.
As the other guy/girl said, only if everyone switched from one day to the other, you'd have a temporary problem.
How many data centers do you think you need to power a car?
Stop repeating big oil talking points