EVs save emissions using gas to generate electricity for vehicles. Some people challenge why electric vehicle chargers are installed around Australia yet are powered by diesel generators as well as solar panels. And recently the former CEO Travis Kalanick from Uber talked about AI and autonomous cars. Both the social media user and Kalanick need to take a class in economics and engineering.

Kalanick stated the demand for electricity by EVs from the grid will overwhelm the generation capacity.

What are the Numbers?

James Douma lays it out here in his X Post [1].

• Assume all of California’s 340 billion annual light-duty vehicle miles transitioned to electric autonomous vehicles.
• EVs consume an average of 200 watt-hours per mile the additional electricity demand would be 68 TWh/year.
• 24% of California’s 2023 electricity generation of 281 TWh.
• The unused generating capacity of California’s fleet of natural gas plants is currently 288TWh per year.
• This more than four times the electricity needs of an electrified auto fleet.
• Currently, generating capacity exceeds average demand and is unused.
• Current power consumption is peaky and we use a lot in the evenings but very little at night.
• We turn off power plants at night and the average gas power plant in California only puts out 26% of it’s potential capacity.
• Similarly the power grid is largely unused at night. The night time load is small compared to the peak daytime capacity that the grid is built to deliver.
• If charging mainly when the grid and power plants are underutilized, a California EV fleet can be powered entirely by unused grid capacity. This approach uses currently unused generation capacity.

Other Benefits

• This would be a huge win for the climate
• Huge win for California’s air pollution even if all the EV miles were powered off of unused natural gas capacity.
• EV’s have a ‘well to wheels’ efficiency that is several times higher than that of ICE vehicles (80%-90% vs 15%-25%).
• The total fossil fuel consumption drops by a factor of 4 if ICE vehicles are substituted with fossil fuel powered EVs.
• Additionally natural gas combustion in a power plant is much cleaner than gasoline/diesel combustion in a moving car.
• Total pollution due to light vehicle transportation would drop by an order of magnitude.
• This is even if all the EVs were powered off of natural gas power plants and not solar.
• The air in LA would become dramatically better as a result of this. And simultaneously the ROI on existing grid and power generation infrastructure would take a giant leap upwards.

References- EVs save emissions using gas

[1] James Douma 2025 X https://x.com/jamesdouma/status/1885766668384866557

[2] Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick @travisk on @theallinpod talks about AI and self-driving cars 2025 https://x.com/herbertong/status/1885535019512586392