A lot of hype is charging up prospects for the electric car. Some of it is clearly justified.
In a perfect world, the pure, electric, plug-in vehicle appears to hold the key to the future. Power it with renewable energy from a solar or wind farm. Run it on a new generation lithium battery capable of 500 miles between charges (still several years away). What’s not to like?
Electric car efficiency depends a great deal on the source of the electricity. More efficient natural gas makes for a more efficient car
Unfortunately, that world has not arrived. Typical batteries get 100 miles or less. Solar and wind aren’t built in sufficient quantities to make a difference.
“Honestly, there is more hype than substance,” says Jacob Grose, a senior analyst at Lux Research.
Still, electric cars can make a difference. Depending on the source of electricity – coal versus more efficient natural gas – their energy efficiency is significantly to modestly above that of internal combustion engines.
Here is how the efficiency calculation plays out (thanks to Grose). Start with a natural gas power plant running at 60 percent efficiency. Figure that 7 percent of the power gets lost in transmission. So the power coming to a residential outlet is about 55% efficient.
Now figure that 95 percent of the electricity makes it into the lithium battery – overall efficiency drops to 53 percent.
The final piece of the calculation is the car’s electric motor, which runs 90 percent efficient. The overall efficiency of an electric car is therefore 48 percent.
The efficiency of an automobile running on gasoline is 25 percent. A significant difference!
Working in the favor of electric cars is an energy efficient engine
The efficiency of an electric car drops to 32 percent if it relies on energy coming from a less efficient coal-fired plant (only 40 percent efficient).
Yet, if deployed in significant numbers, electrics can make a difference in the nation’s energy efficiency – and help wean the country off its addiction to oil.
The dismaying piece of the puzzle is the solar. Solar cell efficiency is just 15 percent. That drops auto efficiency to 12 percent. On the bright side, no carbon is generated.
Excellent overview, and easy to digest. I am glad to know that electric propulsion by itself is so much more efficient than a gasoline engine, in terms of energy loss. I do wish however that the vernacular for an electric vehicle had not become not “zero emission”, as unless it is plugged into a solar array or windmill, it clearly is not. And there’s still the environmental problem of all that new battery mass out there. It’s a hopeful step, but unless we also change driving habits all we’re doing is chipping away at the problem but still avoiding it. Your article should be required reading – people need to learn there is no free lunch! Thank you
Great artcle. Nice to see how it all breaks down. It will take a long time to wean us off oil. I work in the HGV training industry and we train our Drivers to teach fuel efficient driving.
This was a great read and I totally understand where your getting at in the fourth section. Informative post, I’ll regularly follow the other articles.
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