[ewr24]

Does anyone have link to original sources?

Most houses in EU already have "charging point", it is called electric plug. 25A/380V plugs are pretty common: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_and_multiphase_powe...

But electric grids in western countries (Germany, UK) are absolutely not ready for such thing. German power grid would collapse if Czechia and Poland started enforcing their safety regulations.

This regulation would also make it impossible to build off-grid house powered by solar.

[_ph_]

What makes you think the German grid would not be up to charging electrical cars? In most places it is in an excellent state and as electrical consumption overall is sinking (getting rid of incandescent bulbs and wasteful electric devices helped there). On average, an electrical car would need about 10kWh/day to recharge, based on the average mileage. This does not put high loads on the electrical networks, especially as most cars would recharge over night, where the networks are mostly idle.

[ewr24]

My informations from Germany are 6 years, but it probably still applies:

- electricity is produced by wind farms in north, and transfered to industrial south. German grid does not have enough capacity and has to transfer through Czech grid. That is often pushing it to edge of safety limit. Safety breakers are not possible for political reasons (Poland installed something like that).

- Building new high-voltage power line is almost impossible

- Atomic plants are being decommissioned. There might be a problem to satisfy existing demand.

- Germany is planning to use Russian gas to make power in future (baltic pipe...). But Russia stated they might not have enough gas in 30 years to supply their own internal demand, and will stop exporting.

- More recently there is a huge political instability associated with Russian gas.

- Poland (or Estonia?) buys liquid gas from Katar and transports it on tankers. But that is very expensive

- Building new power plants in Germany is very problematic.

[_ph_]

I am from Germany. Yes, to move forward with renewables we need more north-south connections, which are being built. But that concerns the further switch of the grid to renewables (currently 30%). This does not affect the charging of electrical cars - which would rather help to stabilize the grid.

[dattaway]

Not ready? Most electric clothes dryers, heaters, and air conditioners already use 4500 watts each. I'm sure the grid may notice an increase, the utilities will charge for the extra consumption, and upgrade accordingly. The common 200 ampere service in homes should handle another 30 amps...

[icebraining]

A 4500W clothes dryer or heater seems like a stretch, and besides, most people don't run those with a 100% duty cycle for hours. Saying that "utilities will upgrade accordingly" hides a lot of complexity under a simple statement.

[walshemj]

Yes but realistically European charging stations would be a separate 415v - as this allows for much faster charging.

[DanBC]

> 25A/380V plugs are pretty common

Not in homes.

[skrause]

At least in Germany every single house or apartment has an electric connection with a power output of at least 120A/380V (you're always connected to all 3 phases). Hooking up an 25A/380V plug shouldn't be a big deal.

[DanBC]

But that's the point -- we know they have the capacity going into the houses, they just don't currently have the actual connection.

> Hooking up an 25A/380V plug shouldn't be a big deal.

For a forum that's obsessed with A/B testing the colour of eg the signup button it's odd to see people saying this. Of course it's not hard, but it is friction, and people avoid friction. If we want people to take up electric vehicles (and in the UK, particularly London, we really do to undo some of the catastrophic decisions around promoting diesel) we want to make electric vehicles easy to own.

[ewr24]

My experience is from post communist countryside. Everyone has some machinery to cut wood, mix concrete, welding...

[funkyy]

Countryside - but cities, probably main market for electric cars does not have this.

[ewr24]

Main market is countryside with a commute to local city. Cities often do not even have a parking spot and public transport is faster.

[funkyy]

You must be talking about specifically your area. I live in Europe and most central and western Europe (maybe north not so much) is filled with cars and cities are big enough to provide enough parking spaces. Only UK and Ireland are the countries in the west that are not like this. Cant think of any other.