Letter: EV math adds up

In response to the letter “EV math doesn’t add up” (Our Readers’ Views, June 21): I agree with James Ault when he says that to fully convert to electric vehicles, we’d need about 1 trillion kwh of energy to provide all our cars with energy.

According to eia.gov, in 2020, total annual U.S. electricity generated from wind energy was about 338 billion kwh. That could be tripled with offshore wind to provide all the energy we need for EVs.

According to the solar industry (seia.org/us-solar-market-insight), we have 102 GWdc of installed solar capacity.

If solar panels produce 6 percent of what they could under ideal conditions, they would produce over 50,000 GWH per year. That production could be increased to 1 trillion kwh in California alone.

In a manner similar to the cost of computer chips, the cost of solar has fallen rapidly, and that trend will continue. People learn by doing.

The same process is at work with EV batteries.

According to Bloomberg, lithium-ion battery pack prices fell 89 percent in the last decade and will continue to fall.

EV math is great and getting better.