Why is powering an electric car via electric from fossil fuels better than powering a vehicle with fossil fuels directly?
In: Technology
One source of improvement is emissions. When fossil fuels are burned in one place then extravagant methods can be used to clean their harmful emissions as well as capture the CO2. Doing this in millions of cars at an affordable price is not feasible.
Another is the efficiency of energy conversion. Fossil fuels can be burned to power an turbine at much greater efficiency than an IC engine. In addition the turbine runs at constant speed where the IC engine runs at a range of speeds, many of which are even less efficient than its peak.
Whenever you stop a car with an IC engine you must throw all of the energy away in the brakes as well. Whenever an electric car brakes, much of the energy is reclaimed and stored back in the battery.
Also the transmission of the electricity is extremely efficient, especially compared to the transportation of fuel which requires burning some of that fuel to deliver it to furling stations.
And of course, much electrical energy is now provided by renewables rather than fossil fuels.
The list goes on and on.
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