Just did some calculations. Thought you might be interested. The USA uses 11.1 billion kwh of electricity per day. The USA also uses 370 million gallons of gasoline daily, which is the electricity equivalent of 15.0 billion kwh per day. So we will need to more than double our electrical generating capacity, at current surplus levels (actual we will have to increase our generating capacity by 135%) to meet the demand of a completely electrified vehicle market.
It gets worse, getting electricity for vehicles from CO2 producing sources is effectively worthless, environmentally. The USA gets about 18% of its electricity from non CO2 sources, wind, solar, nuke etc. So to get to Nirvana, essentially zero CO2, electrical generation infrastructure with a 100% electric vehicle market, will require a 1300% (13 fold) increase in non CO2 electrical generation, and this doesn't take in to account the storage problems associated with wind, solar etc. And we aren't talking about the 600 lbs gorilla, India, China and the developing world, which struggles to even feed itself.
In short, zero CO2 it is a pipe dream that can't be obtain with current technology. It is time to start listening to Bjorn Lomborg, the modern equivalent of Winston Churchill, the voice of reason, and to start looking at realistic CO2 emission mitigation strategies, and plan to solve this problem on a long term basis.
Before you start slitting your wrists, like Greta Thunberg, the sky isn't falling. 56 million years ago, during the PETM, the planet was vastly hotter, 14 degrees C hotter (25 degrees F), no polar ice caps hot. Guess what happen then? The planet didn't die... mammals, i.e. us, took over. Don't get me wrong, we have a major problem, and less adaptable species will die off in numbers, if not protected, particularly in the oceans, CO2 emission MUST BE ADDRESSED, but we have centuries, if not millennia, to turn it around, if we are smart.
If you want to protect the plant, tribe or animal of your choice from extinction, it is called capture and move, not ideal, but it is the only option. We can go all electric, spend trillions, they will die off, because we can't control the rest of the world and its CO2 emissions (86% of the total). We need to plan for this getting much worse, before it gets better, We can spend trillions, and not make a difference (electric cars), or spend billions, and protect plants and animals from extinction, in the short term, with the hope that we can, and will get our act together globally in the future, and reintroduce them to a better eco system someday.
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