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It must be emphasized that numbers on paper always look optimistic and tough questions should be asked in our market evaluation for both cars and trucks. Consider the following:

With both cars and trucks growing in popularity, this means the utility electric system, the “grid,” will see additional loads. In the United States, the grid system is not entirely consistent. In the Southeast, there is ample excess power, so straining the system is not considered an issue for the short term. Longer term planning will certainly be needed.

Some areas of the country, primarily on the West Coast, utilities may struggle to meet this new demand without building new power plant capacity. How does this impact your marketing targets for EVs of any kind? Further, California has designated that only zero emission cars can be sold beginning in 2035. How will this impact the electrical system? How will this impact utilities, car dealers, and most of all, the residents of California? What does this mean if you are a car dealer in California? If you’re an entrepreneur, does this open an opportunity?

Many utilities have been shifting from coal to cleaner forms of energy, primarily natural gas, solar and wind power. If the price of natural gas increases (while the price of gasoline might decrease), what are the implications? As a marketing professional, does this make you rethink the opportunities or do alternative opportunities arise?

Most likely, a marketing group would develop several models (that is, an Excel spreadsheet) that consider the implications for various increases or decreases in the price of gasoline vs. the price of electricity. To some extent, the regulatory issues are out of your control, but one would expect the impacted parties: utilities, car dealers, and the public would offer opinions to their elected officials.

In the Southeast, a number of utilities are employing various modeling techniques based on anticipated adoption of EVs (refer to Table 2.8). Some of the questions to consider include:

 Current EV use is 2% of the total car market. What strain, if any, does this produce on the electric system if that use rapidly accelerates to 10%? 20%? 30%?

 How much additional power would be needed in the next 10 to 20 years?

 If new electric generating stations are needed, what kind of fuel should be considered? Nuclear? Alternative (wind, solar), natural gas?

 It takes anywhere from two years (wind, solar), to five years (natural gas) to 14 years (nuclear) to build specific types of generation. When should we start planning for new construction?

 Where should these plants be located (usually near a water source)?

 In which direction is the regulatory wind blowing regarding fuel choice?

 What is the impact if rural areas do not adopt EVs, but large cities do?

Table 2.8 Utility Model EV costs.

Fleet Type	Number of Vehicles	Daily Miles Driven	Miles Driven per Month	Daily kWh Used	Monthly kWh Used	Electric Range (miles)	Charger Type	Battery Size (kWh)	Acceptance Rate of (kW)	Charging Time Frame	Number of Charging Hours (Empty to Full Charge)	Energy Consumption Rates (kWh/mile)	Average Power Demand (kW/hour)	Fleet’s Cost-$/kWh	Fleet’s Electric Cost per Month	Gas Cost $/Gallon	Miles/Gallon	Fuel Cost per Month
Light (Up to 8,500 lbs. GVW)	1	50	1500	20	600	338	Level 2	135	15	Overnight	9.0	0.4	2.22	$0.08	$48	$3.50	17.00	$309
Medium (8,501-26,000 lbs. GVW)	1	100	3000	100	3000	200	DC Fast Charger	200	120	Overnight	4.0	1	25.00	$0.08	$240	$3.50	10.00	$1,050
Heavy (Over 26,000 lbs. GVW)	1	125	3750	250	7500	300	DC fast Charger	600	100	Overnight, Mid-route	4.0	2	62.5	$0.08	$600	$3.50	8.00	$1,641

Spreadsheet courtesy of Cobb EMC