The truth behind the rumoured EV driving ban in Switzerland
In the last few days, reports in various media outlets have circulated which, at least in their headlines, somewhat luridly suggested that Switzerland was planning driving bans for electric cars. It turns out the truth behind the “news” is not quite that wild.
The basis for the reports is the ‘Ordinance on Restrictions and Prohibitions on the Use of Electric Energy’. So far, this is only a draft the Swiss Federal Council is currently writing to prepare for the possibility of an electricity shortage, as are other countries – as an emergency response.
The draft ordinance regulates “restrictions and prohibitions on the use of electrical energy in order to secure the country’s electricity supply”. It outlines four possible escalation levels within which the use of bans would at best be staggered in the event of a crisis. E-mobility is only mentioned in escalation level 3 as one of many possible measures. There it says: “The private use of electric cars is only permitted for absolutely necessary journeys (e.g. exercising one’s profession, shopping, visiting the doctor, attending religious events, attending court appointments).” So: Should there really be a power shortage in Switzerland, according to the draft, partial driving bans for electric cars could be considered as one of numerous upstream measures.
admin.ch (in German, page 6)
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The same contingency plan limits to 100 km/h the speed on highways.
Understandable stance. Although an attractive proposition the world is not nearly ready for electric vehicles/transport – think of the scale of the global infrastructure and electrical demand needed to allow the human race us to lead the vehicular lives they are currently used to……
The same reasoning probably existed as the first automobiles started their competition with the horse and buggy. “There is no infrastructure in place to fuel and repair/maintain these new vehicles.” And look at the world now…
Ah, but nobody was pushing to ban the horse and buggy before the necessary infrastructure was built. And the internal combustion automobile increased average people’s ability to travel by expanding both range and speed compared to what they replaced. Not so with EVs, due to lengthy charge times and, shorter real world range than IC autos they purport to replace.
Spot on. What it does tell you is that there is a distinct possibility that you could be banned from driving if there is an energy crisis – something that’s never happened with ICE vehicles. Relying on one type of power source for all the world’s energy and transport will be a crisis waiting to happen.
Any references to limiting driving ICEs, due to the shortages of petrol or the power necessary to refine petroleum? This is not a well reasoned decision, since many of these EVs could be recharged using rooftop solar.
Please show to Hispanic countries, how effective is recharging an EV from a Swiss rooftop of photovoltaic panels, during following winter.
Consider the option to connect the solar panel in question to the EU power grid instead. That would promptly reduce the demand for the most expensive electrical production as long as there is no limitations in the transfer capacity.
The most expensive electrical production is also the shittiest. There has not been any interruption sofar in EU in the use of brown coal at old condensing power stations. 1,30 kg/CO2 per kWh.
It will take at least 10-15 years to replace all fossil fuels for electrical production.
We have significantly to reduce the power consumption. Driving 2,5-3 ton heavy electrical cars with +200 hp isn’t a sustainable future.
You need at least 10 times the number of roof top solar panels, and charge during the day (not at night) to charge your car in a reasonable time…..and If charging at night you’d also need a battery 1.5 times the size of your car battery for storage which is 10 times the size of a normal powerwall currently…..not practical at all to use roof top solar to charge your car…..
Interesting to NOTE thaat NOBODY talks of either LIMITING or REDUCING the E-Motor size: do we need to consume electric power so quickly? 200 – 300kW motors, etc, what was wrong with 75kW motors or even 50kW. NOt so long ago, “Engines” were only 20 to 50hp. and we got there. Do we have to pollute with rubber and brake dust nowadays. IF the max speed is being limited to 100, doesn’t leave much space for high power consumption UNLESS you want to pollute the environment around you. “BECAUSE YOU CAN” is a poor elitist excuse.
SO smaller motors will run for longer on the same battery and charge. As we said in Aberdeen, ‘let a little mak a muckle’ and there’ll be plenty for everybody.
Nonsense. The vast majority of homes are not capable of charging EVs anyway and never will be, because there are no off-road parking facilities. There has never been a problem with ICEs due to shortages of petrol, other than things such as industrial strike action.
Unlike EVs, using ICEs does not limit everyone else’s ability to heat their home or run their refrigerator during periods of high electric demand. While solar *may* charge an EV in winter when incident sunlight is reduced by the sun’s angle and cloudy days, how would anyone know whether a given EV driver is lying about how their vehicle was charged?
Oil crisis already happend:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/19/odd-even-gasoline-sales-to-begin-here-thursday/dff7541b-c67f-42c4-9e0c-11450df6716f/