Part of Energy & Sustainability Network »

The Energy Collective Group

This group brings together the best thinkers on energy and climate. Join us for smart, insightful posts and conversations about where the energy industry is and where it is going.

Post

Electric vehicles x gasoline

Rafael Herzberg's picture
Rafael Herzberg
Consultant energy affairs Self employed

Rafael Herzberg- is an independent energy consultant, self-employed (since 2018) based in São Paulo, Brazil* Focus on C level, VPs and upper managers associated to energy related info, analysis...

  • Member since 2003
  • 1,816 items added with 1,065,215 views
  • Sep 28, 2021 8:45 am GMT
  • 867 views

Your access to Member Features is limited.

Electric vehicles x gasoline

Electric vehicles make perfect sense if they are powered by renewable sources such as hydraulic, solar and wind.

A 50 kWh battery allows a medium-sized electric car to travel 300 km (200 miles). In other words, it makes 6 km/kWh.

A gasoline-equivalent car does 10 km/liter. The lower calorific value of gasoline is 8.4 kWh/litre. This results in 1.2 km/kWh.

If the battery is charged using an open-cycle thermal power plant, its efficiency is 30%. Taking into account the transmission and distribution losses and power theft (more than 10% of all supply in Brazil), it comes to 20%. So, what was 6 km/kWh ends up being 1.2 km/kWh.

Converting our current fleet to electric makes sense if renewable sources are used to charge the batteries. Or at least the biggest chunk of the power matrix.

Rafael Herzberg's picture
Thank Rafael for the Post!
Energy Central contributors share their experience and insights for the benefit of other Members (like you). Please show them your appreciation by leaving a comment, 'liking' this post, or following this Member.
More posts from this member
Discussions
Spell checking: Press the CTRL or COMMAND key then click on the underlined misspelled word.
Matt Chester's picture
Matt Chester on Sep 28, 2021

These are important calculations to track, as are the footprint of EV materials vs. ICE cars. All studies I've seen look deep into this do confirm that EVs are a net positive in both regards in most locations, though you're right the power mix of a given region will directly impact that. I know the last pockets of the U.S. where EV emissions per mile weren't an improvement over ICE were ones with the highest levels of coal, but those grids have since shifted towards cleaner sources enough to flip the script-- and that's the other important part to remember regarding EVs: gasoline powered cars have their emissions per mile locked in, but for EVs they will only get cleaner the more time goes on and the grid becomes less carbon intensive. So the same EV plugged in anew today vs. the car still running in 10 years plugging into the same grid will naturally become even cleaner over that time!

Rafael Herzberg's picture
Rafael Herzberg on Sep 28, 2021

Sure Matt! Anyway in rough numbers the energy efficiency - these days - of an EV is 80% while an ICE is 20%. Both - with the ongoing technology - do not have a lot of room for improvement because now we are talking about the inherent conversion processes. So my discussion (post) was basically to address the need to take very good care of the way we produce electricity to run our EVs because ultimately this is what will drive overall emissions.

Get Published - Build a Following

The Energy Central Power Industry Network is based on one core idea - power industry professionals helping each other and advancing the industry by sharing and learning from each other.

If you have an experience or insight to share or have learned something from a conference or seminar, your peers and colleagues on Energy Central want to hear about it. It's also easy to share a link to an article you've liked or an industry resource that you think would be helpful.

                 Learn more about posting on Energy Central »

Your access to Member Features is limited.

Apply for membership
Energy Central Jobs
Featured Jobs
More Jobs