Moving to Electric Vehicles in Argentina

[Ries]

"efficiency" is a slippery term.
Generally speaking, its much less polluting to install ONE expensive pollution control system on an electrical generating plant, than 100,000 tuneups or parts replacements on privately owned cars, so, from a pollution standpoint, generating electricity to power cars has benefits over burning GNC in every car.
Plus, my wife has an electric car in the US, and having owned around 40 IC cars in the last 40 years, and wrenched on many of them, I can tell you it has far fewer parts to wear out, much lower repair and maintenance costs (no radiators or oil changes or transmission rebuilds) and is more "efficient" in many ways to an owner.
Then, we get into taxes, lack thereof, and government subsidies.
Nuclear is by far the most expensive per kilowatt, and never exists without massive government intervention, worldwide.
Wind and Solar are the cheapest, and constantly getting cheaper, but, pretty much anywhere, if the government is helping other generators get rich, there is resistance to change.
Australia is a good example of how to let the market install solar, by forcing utilities to let them. Most of the US is the opposite- allowing privately owned utilities to make installing solar expensive and hard.
Argentine politics seem simple compared to energy politics in the USA.

 

[jblaze5779]

Wonder if the gas pumper union would ever let this happen?

 

[sts7049]

This is the classic right wing argument in the USA- that the grid will fail. Across the world, it turns out, that the transition has been slow, and that no grids have failed yet.

Its true the Edenor and Edesur are particularly screwed up, due to the cut rate deals when they were privatized, and the subsequent almost complete lack of infrastructure investment.

Its also true that the argentine regulations and economy encourage the least efficient means of heating and cooling, individual heat pumps, rather than whole building systems, solar, other more modern, energy efficient techniques.
But globally, the electrical consumption of most consumer goods keeps getting lower per unit, as new tech gets invented- modern fridges, washing machine, air conditioner, and other big draw consumer items use much less wattage, and thus, are adopted globally by consumers, so the trend will be towards lower per capita electrical use, eventually, in Argentina.

In most first world countries, we have seen drastic per capita use drops in the last 20 years, which more than accomodates the increase in car charging, and car charging is almost always at night, at times of least draw on the grid anyway.
In other words, its a problem that doesnt actually exist in the countries that are currently seeing big increases in electric cars.

Obvio, the Argentine government has structural barriers to all kinds of sensible policies, but often as not, they were placed to benefit ogliarchs, like the ones who own Edenor and Edesur, not for some mysterious communist reason. Here, for example, is where your Edenor bill goes- the yacht of one of the owners. https://yachtbible.com/attila-yacht/

People, individually, will buy electric cars, because they are cheaper to run, and gas is not going to drastically become cheaper in our lifetimes.
But it will happen slow enough that the utilities will find ways to keep up.

california seems to disagree

California Faces Summer Blackouts from Climate Extremes

Energy planners are working to increase the grid’s reliability to keep the power on during droughts, wildfires and heat waves

www.scientificamerican.com

 

[Ries]

california seems to disagree

California Faces Summer Blackouts from Climate Extremes

Energy planners are working to increase the grid’s reliability to keep the power on during droughts, wildfires and heat waves

www.scientificamerican.com

Having lived in Cali, I would agree that, like edenor, the utilities ther have ignored investment in infrastructure, to, instead, buy back shares with their government guaranteed profits.
but that has nothing to do with electric cars.
in fact, Cali has both one of the highest ratres of electric car ownership and the lowest per capita electricity consumption in the USA.
They prove my point- the power consumption there has been shifting to electric cars, with per capita consumption dropping even as this happens. This article backs up two of my points- appliances and building codes- two areas where argentina could shift policy and regulations, and shift energy usage without needing huge amounts of new generating capacity.

California is much more energy-efficient than the rest of the country

It’s not about luck. It’s about smart policy.

www.vox.com

 

[jblaze5779]

You mean that they could create building codes? Most buildings I've seen here probably weren't up to any sort of code.

 

[Ries]

You mean that they could create building codes? Most buildings I've seen here probably weren't up to any sort of code.

If the city wants to move, they do. For instance, if there is ANY question about the gas connection, the city will, that day, shut down the gas lines to a whole building without a blink. I have a friend who lives in a building with over 100 units, they shut the gas down in an eyeblink.
Obvio, the city can and does enforce regulations if it chooses to. So, yes, they could change the rules about electrical appliance and heat pump consumption, and phase in new, more efficient equipment.
NO, its probably not going to mean going in and requiring you rip out your old airconditioner.
But using market forces, ie, prices, to encourage the more energy efficient stuff is mainly what California has done, as well as europe- it works just fine.
As a property owner in BA since 2007, I can tell you the government enforces a variety of building rules, like requiring rooftop water tanks be tested, requiring fire extinguishers and emergency lighting, and checking on gas hookups.
Its not a third world country, and, as evidenced by the covid lockdown, the vast majority of argentines will obey the rules. 100 meters from the house, for six months. Almost zero cheaters.
When the Argentines decide to do something, it actually happens pretty quickly.
The H subway line was built amazingly fast- probably a quarter of the time it would take in most US cities. Seattle has transit projects underway right now scheduled to be done in 2040.
Paseo del Bajo was very quick. The Big Dig in Boston was started in 1982. They think it will be done this year.
The bus stop rebuilds, ditto.

 

[jblaze5779]

Sounds like things are a little fancier in BA.