Q: Would EVs work well for escaping hurricanes?
A: There are advantages and disadvantages for EV in an evacuation situations. One significant advantage is that the EV is charged at the house, so as long as the area has power, the EV can be charged - whereas ICE cars often have to wait in long gas lines, sometimes without success as gas station may run out.
As far as range goes, EVs do not "idle" and the energy use in climate control is minimal. An ICE on idle or slow, bumper to bumper traffic can use substantial fuel just to operate in those situations - whereas battery demand on an EV is far less, particularly when the owner sets the use to eco mode (because no performance is needed in that kind of driving situation). If an EV has a 250 mile range, the car will be able to achieve most of that range even if it takes 14 hours to get the first 100 miles done.
One disadvantage is refueling in an evacuee situation, where the owner has to live several days or more away from the home charging option. The charging network infrastructure is not ideal, but as EV adoption increases, the network increases - so it really all depends on where the evacuee is and what charging is available nearby. All EVs can charge off of a standard 110v outlet and though charging is very slow, the car can still add enough energy in an overnight charge to handle local needs or to be able to drive to a charging station.
Q: What if the power goes out at your house for several hours one night?
A: Likely no impact. The average EV owner with an average of 200 to 250 miles from an overnight charge at home is not charging the vehicle every night - only once or twice per week on average. A short-term power outage is unlikely to impact the owner at all.
Q: What about areas that tell residents to limit their air conditioning use? That same grid can handle additional car chargers?
A: Most EV charging is overnight when demand on the grid is substantially reduced and more and more home chargers use smart technology that can charge at optimal times when demand is reduced. As the fraction of the vehicle fleet that is EV increases, demand on the grid will increase but most estimates show the increased demand is marginal at modest rates of adoption.
Long-term projections toward full adoption (if that even happens at all) do show a need to enhance the electricity grid but they also show energy gains in the system as that kind of timeline includes efficiency gains in the EV fleet, a reduction of gasoline use, and increased renewable energy production methods on the grid.
Q: What about large apartment complexes or trailer parks? Will charging be in place for them?
A: This seems to suggest that there will be some requirement to have EV, not sure where this is coming from. An individual owner's ability to conveniently charge will be a major factor in whether that person buys an EV. Apartment complexes frequently have charging stations and this will grow as the charging base grows. An owner may also have a convenient charging option elsewhere (e.g. at work). It really all depends on the individual situation.
Q: Does it really put people in the best situation in emergency situations?
A: This question is unclear. Most emergency situations probably aren't likely to see a difference between EV and ICE. Apart from the discussion in the evacuation question above, it really all depends on the particular emergency. For example, EVs can navigate through water more effectively than ICE.
Q: Has all the math been done to prove at the end of the day they are truly that much "greener" and ethical than efficient gasoline vehicles?
A: "Greener" and "ethical" are highly subjective terms, but otherwise, yes, studies (with math) demonstrate greenhouse gas output of EV (including charging from a power plant) versus ICE. This will vary based on how the owner gets the electricity (pure coal power on one end versus renewable on the other) but most Americans get their power from a grid that has different kinds of power input, some cleaner than others, so this is quite variable.
A typical EV use will release between 10 and 30 units of emissions for every 100 by an ICE. In broad terms, this means for every 100K miles, the EV use (with charging) has produced 10 to 30 percent of what the ICE vehicle produced. Both EV and ICE efficiency are increasing so this may vary. Note that for ICE in these studies, they only calculate the car's tailpipe emissions and don't include the emissions from, for example, trucking the gas to the gas pump. So these are never fully complete but the emissions advantage from EV is substantial and well documented. There are websites where you can enter your zipcode and it will give you the breakdown of how your typical kilowatt-hour is produced. You can then take that information to get your actual emissions profile versus an ICE.
Broader studies that include the full scope of the manufacturing for both EV and ICE are far more challenging. EV battery production is not environmentally friendly, nor is fossil fuel production. Thankfully EV battery recycling at the end of the battery's life has dramatically improved over the past 5 to 7 years such that most EV batteries will not see disposal at the end of the EV's battery life.
Some helpful links - though these issues have quite a bit of discussion in various articles:
https://climatebiz.com/how-long-can-an-electric-car-idle/
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/v...-jam/275-1ac08410-c9cf-40a6-9fd3-c5717af0e737
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries...of-electric-vehicles-on-global-energy-systems
https://www.epa.gov/egrid
https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/electric_emissions.html
