Why is combustion cheaper than electricity to run when it comes to heating but not when it comes to transportation?
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Electric energy generally costs more than fossil fuel energy. Since producing heat is nearly 100% efficient heating with cheaper energy (like gas) is cheaper.
However for cars, while gas is cheaper on a per energy basis, engines are not efficient so it takes a lot more energy for an internal combustion car to drive a mile than it would for an EV to drive that same mile. For the energy in one gallon of gas an IC vehicle can drive maybe 25 miles while an EV can drive 120 miles. Even if the electrical energy costs more its far cheaper to drive the EV because it uses far less of it.
Edit: Also that is resistive electric heating, electric heating with heat pumps is more efficient than fossil fuel heating both in terms of energy in/heat out and total emissions. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0488-7
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