Almost all car charging is done at night, when grid load is far lower. Charging will not be a problem, and there is no material shortage likely in the near future.
Brand new flat or house built today in Madrid, Spain are fitted at best with a 20A connection. The standing charge alone is more than what I pay for electricity (standing charge and consumption) in a 2 bed flat in London. The vast majority of flat and house I have seen in Spain have 15A or 20A. That includes city, and country houses.
It is a cost cutting measure rather than an infrastructure limitation (people chose a 20A connection because of the standing charge cost) in the
newer building, but I suspect that if a significant portion of the population need to double their contract and maxed it out during the night, there is going to be some work needed.
Seriously, 20A? How do you even run an air conditioner on that, much less an entire house? 200A (at 240V split phase) is standard here in the Midwestern US. It's easy and cheap to get more if you want a better connection, such as for an EV or a home shop with welders and large motors.
> Seriously, 20A? How do you even run an air conditioner on that, much less an entire house?
The poster mentioned Spain, which uses 230V (unlike the USA, which uses 120V), so 20A should be around 4600W if I did the calculation correctly. With a quick search I found a window AC with 18000 BTU using only 1700W, so even with 15A it would be possible to run one AC with plenty to spare.
The USA uses 120V for outlets and lighting, but most buildings have what we call "split phase" where 240V is available between two opposing sine waves. A neutral down the middle gives you 120 from either of these phases. Large appliances run on 240V dedicated circuits, the rest are 120.
And 4600 KW is only a couple tons. You'll need more than that for a 5-ton central HVAC to cool an average house in a hot or humid area.
No, as the other poster pointed out, the US is 240 volts not 120 for this discussion. 120 volts is what you get to your general use outlets, but when we say a house in the US has 200 amps of mains service, we mean 200 amps at 240 volts, or 400 amps at 120 volts. The split to 120 volt happens in your mains panel after the main breaker.
I've certainly run into homes that couldn't add a clothes dryer circuit without major renovation involving the city.
Not saying it will be be an issue everywhere, but the span is too short for it not to be an issue in many places.
Given the short time frame, proof that there aren't issues would seem more prudent. Whether that's manufacturing capacity for batteries, or grid shortfalls in certain areas, or whatever.
Almost all car charging is done at night, when grid load is far lower. Charging will not be a problem, and there is no material shortage likely in the near future.