Vehicle efficiency - Have you every wondered how much energy it takes to drive an EV or fossil fuel car the same distance? I worked out the math so you don't have to. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋, A 🧵

I've posted about the difference in driving cost and CO2 emissions from Fossil Fuel vs. Battery Electric Vehicles. (You can find those if you scroll back through my posts.) But it occurred to me that I have not calculated the total energy used by different types of powertrains. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋

We have to convert the energy to common units for the comparison. The easy way to do that is based on the amount of energy in a gallon of gas. Proponents of primary energy like to go on about the energy density of fossil fuels. So lets see how that works out... 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋

There are 33.7 kWh of energy in a US gallon of gas. Not all of that makes a fossil fuel car move. Much is lost to heat and friction, and noise, but all of it gets consumed when you empty the tank. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋

If each car is driven 10,000 miles in a given year, and we know the MPG of the fossil fuel car and the efficiency of the EV in miles/kWh, we can calculate how much energy is needed to travel that distance. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋

I made the calculations for 9 - 57 MPG for fossil fuel cars and hybrids and 47 to 145 MPGe for BEVs. That is the range of fossil fuel and BEVs vehicle economy you can purchase in the US based on the EPA Fuel Economy website.

If we select three example BEVs that span the range of efficiency available and compare how much energy they consume relative to fossil fuel cars the results are striking. A gas guzzling performance car, large SUV or truck may use 14-16x more energy than an EV. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋

More energy use translates into greater cost to operate. The big difference in energy use is due to efficiency. Fossil fuel have much lower efficiency than battery electric cars. Most of the money you spend on gasoline is lost as waste heat and noise. Switch to an EV and save money. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋