Neal Rubin: Questions abound about EVs in DTE territory — but utility claims answers

I asked Jeff Prosserman if America was ready for a rampaging swarm of electric cars, and he looked at me with an expression bordering on shock.

"I mean ... no," he said. "That's why we're here."

Then I asked the director of electric marketing for DTE Energy, and she said yes — though the question wasn't exactly apples to kilowatts.

As for GM, which expects to be the big dog in the EV kennel, it says we're looking at the energy issue backward. But we live in an area where we're used to fumbling for flashlights because a transformer vaporized, so we're allowed to be hesitant.

Prosserman is the co-founder and CEO of Voltpost, which has figured out a way to turn lampposts into EV charging stations without inconveniences like digging up pavement. He was staffing a booth a few days ago at the North American International Detroit Auto Show, where EVs are EVerywhere and the handsome 2025 Cadillac CT5 that took its first bow might be part of the last batch of gas-powered CT5s ever produced.

Just outside the sprawling autoMOBILI-D area at Huntington Place, a dozen people were inspecting a white Hummer EV pickup. On a stage inside, the EV-owning moderator of a panel discussion about electrification was saying she's constantly fielding questions from strangers about her car.

Only 1% of automobiles on U.S. roads are fully electric, but 6% of cars sold last year were EVs. The International Energy Agency's projection for worldwide adoption — based on national policies and priorities, rather than sales — is 35% by 2030.

Those are encouraging numbers, Prosserman said, but Voltpost's measuring stick is people, not percentages.

"We have a very limited window to ratchet down carbon emissions for the sake of humanity," he said. "We can't afford not to make this transition."

Most carmakers have climbed enthusiastically aboard the e-train. The show floor even features a battery-powered short-hop aircraft, essentially a two-passenger winged drone.

It would be easier to buy into the future of electric vehicles around here, though, if we didn't have so many power failures in our recent past.

Up to the task − sometimes

That's where Pina Bennett of DTE entered the conversation, fresh from the autoMOBILI-D panel.

Where Prosserman's concern is chargers in any place he can put them, Bennett's is keeping chargers and everything else juiced in Southeast Michigan. When the aftermath of every junior-varsity-level storm includes an estimate of when 240,000 customers will get their power back, it makes a full tank of gas an alluring commodity.

"At the current rate of EV adoption," Bennett said, "the grid is caught up," and the utility is prepared to mitigate the impact as larger numbers of power-seeking vehicles tap into the system.

The problem arises when the grid hits the skids. But DTE is attacking the reliability issue with $9 billion across five years, she said, and a four-pronged plan that covers everything from a high-tech grid management system to low-tech tree trimming should improve performance.

Drivers can assume that there will be plenty of electricity to go around, Bennett said, and should “not be conflating reliability with capacity.”

A few paces away, Jim Doran, of Ferndale, wanted to believe.

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More range, fewer worries

Doran serves as global account director for Vodafone, a British data and telecom company. As he staffed the company booth, he explained how the onset of EVs changed his usual pattern of car acquisition — but did not put one in his driveway.

Typically, he likes to drive a vehicle until the floorboards fall out, and when it was recently time to buy a second car for his family, he said, "I wanted to be part of improving the ecosystem."

Long term, Doran said, he absolutely believes the grid will bear the load. Short term, he has a 2-year lease pending on an internal combustion Chevy Silverado Trail Boss "because I don't know what's going to happen."

Only good things, said Hoss Hassani, GM's vice president of Ultium Charge 360 and Ultium Home.

Ultium is GM's third-generation battery platform, and, Ultiumately, Hassani said — ideally, by 2026 — it will boost battery range for any EV to 450 miles and be able to shift unused power back into the system in case of another infuriating blackout.

Ford's F-150 Lightning is already a power source. The Chevy Silverado EV will take on the same duty for the 2024 model year.

“We want our EVs to be a remedy for challenges to the grid,” Hassani said. The average driver uses only 40 miles of range per day, so if capacity swells to 11 times that, concerns about power failures — or the all-important trips Up North — should be left in the dust.

Some 90% of EVs are currently charged at home, which is grand if you have a garage but not an enticement if you're one of the many people who don't.

That circles back to Voltpost and solving problems that might not exist yet but will down the road, as EVs theoretically become less elite and more omnipresent.

"It took a leap of faith to build the Brooklyn Bridge and the subway system," said Prosserman, a New Yorker by way of Toronto.

Or gas stations, for that matter. Or electrical grids, however reliable or otherwise they may be.

Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com, or via TwiX at @nealrubin_fp.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: DTE reliability record prompts EV concerns; GM, utility offer answers