That's my point though, it currently is. There's no massive load, its not the majority. If the world switches, cities will be needing to do massive power overhauls and use more resources. This will be translated into electricity rates/taxes increasing. Will it be translated to the rate of gasoline? Who knows.
I feel like batteries are right there, and this tesla push for electric cars is giving battery research a new life and we might see batteries be a huge upgrade from gas but I don't think it's entirely there. If it is an upgrade, it's marginal.
All things considered, I keep my car budget around $1k and that's been working fantastic for me. That budget if ever possible, won't be viable for many many many years.
From what I've heard, it'll need to increase by about 5%.
Specifically, from what I've heard from ~6:20 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QLLYauN7sY .
I don't have numbers, but increasing the grid by 5% doesn't sound catastrophically impossible. Not compared to shipping truckloads of fresh petrol to every town on the planet on a weekly basis, at least.
There is aftermarket batteries to put life back in a Nissan leaf.
> can our grid handle that?
Not in the few hours of peak though there are charges that understand the time of day costs and will only charge in certain times when the grid is cheaper.
Some electric vehicles such as the Nissan leaf also have V2G which will help the grid in times of need.
> cannot see how it would be cheaper than gas
It already is.
> I just see this hurting low-income people.
You are right it will as people transition off gas it will no longer have economies of scale so the price of gas will rise.