Morgan Stanley is betting that electric cars will corner 70pc of the European vehicle market by the middle of century, leading to a drastic upheaval for the power sector and scramble for dominance of lucrative new technologies. Global banks in London and New York are no longer debating whether the switch-over will occur. Research reports have shifted to granular analysis over what this means for large swathes of the economy, and who will be the winners and losers as the old edifice crumbles. Morgan Stanley says electrification will break the existing system over time. Utility companies should have no trouble over the next decade but the extra power required to recharge a European fleet of 150m cars in 2050 would be equivalent to an “another Germany’ springing into being. A typical electric car needs as much power over the course of a year as the average British household. It could in theory lead a doubling of peak demand. National Grid thinks this could be limited to 15pc by 2040 with the right technology. Nobody knows for sure how much could be achieved by shifting to off-peak hours through smart grids and variable tariffs. Nor do they know whether car batteries themselves will act as a major storage reservoir through ‘vehicle-to-grid’ (V2G) flows to balance fluctuations of wind and solar. Everything is up in the air. All we know is that vast sums are at stake and vested interests that fail to adapt in time will be wiped out.
Telegraph 20th June 2017 read more »