The Editor,
Re. “Cars and trucks sold in B.C. by 2040 will be zero-emission: government” (tricitynews.com).
Premier John Horgan may want to do some back-of-the-napkin calculations on the 2040 target for only zero-emission new vehicles to be sold in B.C.
Here is mine (note that some of these numbers are from 2016 and that will change by 2040):
• number of class 5 licences: 2,620,000;
• average distance driven per year: 15,000 km;
• average electrical consumption of an electric vehicle: 18.7 kilowatt hours (kWh)/100 km (based on the Nissan Leaf);
Thus, 15,000 km times 18.7 kWh equals 2,805 kW/h per year; multiply that by 2,620,000 class 5 licences equals 7.35 trillion kW/h per year.
Currently, B.C. produces a maximum of 54 gigawatt hours — or 54 billion kWh — per year.
Thus, given the projected need of 7.35 trillion kWh/year and the current electricity production of 54 billion kWh/year, B.C. would have to produce 136 times more energy for Horgan and the NDP’s vision to come true.
David Noga, Coquitlam
