Why is powering an electric car via electric from fossil fuels better than powering a vehicle with fossil fuels directly?
In: Technology
A car’s engine is maybe 25% efficient at turning fuel into motion, while power plants can get up to 60%. A little electricity is lost in transmission and charging, and electric motors are just shy of 100% efficient, but you’re still way higher than a gas car’s efficiency after those loses.
That gas car efficiency is only at the time when it’s running at optimum load and rpm, which it usually isn’t in a car, especially when idle. Electrics don’t have to power the motors when sitting, only when driving, which saves a lot of electricity. They can also use regenerative braking to get some of that electricity used to accelerate it back instead of it all being wasted as heat in the brakes.
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