Without reading the article, here's how I explain it.
For gasoline car, we have the following supply chain. Remember each step involves transportation of some kind.
Oil in the earth -> Pump -> Crude Oil -> pipeline, rail cars, or ship -> refinery -> gasoline -> pipeline, rail cars, trucks -> gas station -> pump -> gas tank in your car -> fuel pump -> fuel injection + air -> combustion -> mechanical energy + heat -> transmission -> drivetrain -> tires -> movement
Here's how people represent electric cars (but this is missing a lot of steps):
electricity from the wall -> charger -> EV battery -> EV motor -> movement
The part people miss is where does the electricity come from?
Solar energy goes sunlight -> solar cell -> battery -> transformer -> power grid -> transformer -> your house -> your wall
Wind energy goes wind -> windmill -> battery -> transformer -> power grid -> etc...
Natural gas is natural gas in the earth -> pump -> pipeline, rail cars or ship -> natural gas + air -> heat -> turbine -> transformer -> power grid
Coal is coal in the earth -> dug out -> rail cars -> coal + air -> heat -> turbine -> transformer -> power grid
Nuclear power (if you are so lucky) raw uranium ore -> refinery -> fuel rods -> nuclear reactor -> heat -> turbine -> etc...
Notice that for gas-powered cars, the entire power generation phase is replaced by the refinery that makes gasoline. Furthermore, the way gasoline is made is ridiculously good in terms of energy loss / input. There just isn't as much loss as there is for other forms of energy.
In the case of "green" energy systems, you need batteries to store that energy, and batteries are very, very lossy. For Li-ion batteries, it's 80%-90%. Imagine pouring 10 gallons of gas into a tank, but only drawing out 8 or 9 gallons. That's how bad batteries are. And there is no way to make this better.
For power transmission, just moving the power down the lines involves quite a bit of loss. It's roughly similar - 8% to 15%. Imagine pouring 10 gallons of gas down a tube, but only getting 8 or 9 gallons out the other end.
Converting energy into electricity is not efficient. It is useful, yes, and readily converted to whatever other forms of energy you need, but there are huge costs involved with it. It is better to leave the gasoline alone, and let it power the car directly rather than converting everything to batteries and transmission lines, when oil tankers, rail cars, pipelines and trucks are so much more efficient at transferring it than power lines are at electricity.
Without reading the article, here's how I explain it.
For gasoline car, we have the following supply chain. Remember each step involves transportation of some kind.
Oil in the earth -> Pump -> Crude Oil -> pipeline, rail cars, or ship -> refinery -> gasoline -> pipeline, rail cars, trucks -> gas station -> pump -> gas tank in your car -> fuel pump -> fuel injection + air -> combustion -> mechanical energy + heat -> transmission -> drivetrain -> tires -> movement
Here's how people represent electric cars (but this is missing a lot of steps):
electricity from the wall -> charger -> EV battery -> EV motor -> movement
The part people miss is where does the electricity come from?
Notice that for gas-powered cars, the entire power generation phase is replaced by the refinery that makes gasoline. Furthermore, the way gasoline is made is ridiculously good in terms of energy loss / input. There just isn't as much loss as there is for other forms of energy.
In the case of "green" energy systems, you need batteries to store that energy, and batteries are very, very lossy. For Li-ion batteries, it's 80%-90%. Imagine pouring 10 gallons of gas into a tank, but only drawing out 8 or 9 gallons. That's how bad batteries are. And there is no way to make this better.
For power transmission, just moving the power down the lines involves quite a bit of loss. It's roughly similar - 8% to 15%. Imagine pouring 10 gallons of gas down a tube, but only getting 8 or 9 gallons out the other end.
Converting energy into electricity is not efficient. It is useful, yes, and readily converted to whatever other forms of energy you need, but there are huge costs involved with it. It is better to leave the gasoline alone, and let it power the car directly rather than converting everything to batteries and transmission lines, when oil tankers, rail cars, pipelines and trucks are so much more efficient at transferring it than power lines are at electricity.