You plug your car at home or on the street, the charging will not happen until there is capacity. If it is to work the charging has to be smart, most electric car owners charge at home and they choose to charge when the power is cheapest although this will become automated, charging stations only supply about 20%. As most new models will go 200 miles plus it does not need to charge daily.

Lastly a tesla (large electric car) uses about 200w/h per km most people travel on average only about 30km per day commute which is only 6kWh/day that is the same as small electric heater for 2 1/2 hours at 1:00am. The savings of converting the street lighting to LEDs will just about cover it and if you have a bit of roof space 6kWh per day is a small system although you will need home batteries to charge your car at night but that is another story. By the way I generate on average 19kWh/day from my home solar it's like owning your own oil well and currently not taxed but that may change.

Location: Rokeby, Victoria, Australia

Ah there is a little advertised scheme called Short Term Operating Reserve STOR. Any body with some spare cash can build one using containerised truck engines driving generators, you give the keys to the National Grid and get paid so much for stand by and running.

I have read of a scheme whereby electric cars are used to store electricity to feed back into the grid when needed. Same principle as the pumped storage hydro schemes.

Our lovely little cars will run on anything that goes bang when sparked, as owners found in the second world war. We just need a bit of creativity and ingenuity, often shown on this forum. Homebrew alcohol anyone?

Location: Isle of Wight