Electric Cars are not ready to replace gas-powered cars.
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Think of it this way.
Take a fuel efficient gas car and put a 1200 lb slab on top of it.
If that 1200 lb slab you're talking about is the battery, keep in mind that electric engines are extremely efficient at using the energy in there. It's a lot different than putting a 1200 lb slab of concrete that doesn't aid in moving the car forward. Electric engines are way more efficient than gas engines, and I fully expect that we will be getting 1000+ miles out of them off a single charge within 10 years.
Don't get me wrong: I've had many opportunities to buy electric cars and haven't. I thoroughly enjoy driving stick, and they just don't have anything like it for electric vehicles. All the hate for electric cars seems a bit unwarranted though. The idea of being able to charge my car using solar panels appeals to me. If the government tries to limit movement by cutting access to gasoline, I can still move around, provided my car's electronics do not brick the car.
I got my coal powered car because it’s super fast, always has a full tank in the morning, no maintenance except for tires (brakes last forever because of regen) and stick to the road (good in snow) because of the weight. I love it. I didn’t get it to “save the planet”, it doesn’t do that.
Not only is it super fast, the throttle response is next to nothing. That's the one aspect of EVs that I can't wait to try out, because it might feel so good that it's an acceptable tradeoff for the stick shift. I'm so close to pulling the trigger.
Electric car engines have ZERO efficiency at creating energy.
They do not create energy.
Someone else has to do that ---- then you have an additional ~5 to 10% loss (Tesla batteries have to have a cooling system for the waste heat energy).
.... and you have to drag around a 1200 lb weight.
Engine efficiency refers to the percentage of energy lost when converting stored energy into kinetic energy. No engine creates energy (it's one of the basic laws in physics: energy cannot be created or destroyed), so discussing how much energy an engine creates doesn't really serve to validate or invalidate any engine, gas or electric.
Comparing today's typical efficiency of consumer gas engines and consumer electric engines puts electric vehicles significantly ahead: gas car engines operate at 20% efficiency, whereas electric car engines operate at 60% efficiency. And the electric vehicle industry is still young, so we will likely see significant improvements in both energy storage and thermal efficiency.
I suspect improving battery weight is at the top of every EV manufacturer's list of desired improvements. Right now the energy density of a lithium ion battery is around 0.7 MJ/kg, whereas gasoline stores around 44 MJ/kg. There's quite a bit of research going on around increasing efficiency of electricity storage, so I suspect that will improve significantly within the next 5 to 10 years. Increasing the energy density of EV batteries from 0.7 MJ/kg to 2.8 MJ/kg will effectively make electric batteries lighter than most car engines (and would also increase the single charge range into thousands of miles).The future looks pretty exciting.
Toyota is claiming 40% thermal efficiency
You have to factor the energy loss of charging the battery.