Electric solutions

Re “Hold on” (Our Views, April 10): In his letter, Daniel Snyder asks a few questions about electric vehicles. As someone with engineering and economics degrees and an electric vehicle owner since 2013, I’d like to offer some answers.

Question one: How would tax revenue from gas sales be replaced? Answer: I wouldn’t worry because politicians are good at inventing new taxes. Question two: “What happens to 150,000 gas stations?” Answer: Obviously the savvy owners add electric vehicle chargers.

Question three: “Who would pay for millions of work hours lost to recharging commercial vehicles?” Answer: New electric vehicles need recharging about as often as drivers need to eat. So, no lost time at all. Just lunch.

Question four: “What do we use to produce the electric power for those 275 million vehicles?” Answer: Because electric grid power is about twice as efficient as the typical internal combustion engine, we could use about half of the saved fossil fuel. In actuality, very little new power resources are required because the vast majority of power used for recharging will be at night, when plenty of excess capacity is already available. Check with Dominion Energy’s off-peak electric vehicle charging plan.

Question five: Where would all those batteries come from? Answer: Right now, besides the roughly 35 existing plants worldwide, 13 new plants in the United States have been announced, creating new jobs for Americans.

Question six: “How could they make electric vehicles affordable for everyone?” Answer: Mass production drives prices down. And many people like me will buy used vehicles at very affordable prices.

— Joseph H. Discenza, Poquoson