Even if you had 100% efficient batteries, they could never be as efficient at ICE in terms of weight, safety, and power.
Remember, much of the energy in gasoline comes from the air!
But besides this fact, the total energy spent to produce a mile of travel for an EV is always going to be way higher than the total energy spent for a mile of travel in an ICE.
When people compare EVs to gas cars, they always compare apples to oranges. They forget what it takes to generate and transmit electrical power in the first place. Combined with the lie that we can harvest energy with wind or solar (we can't -- they take more energy to produce than they can produce in their lifetime).
I always draw this picture to help people understand.
For ICE:
Oil in the ground -> pumps -> oil in a pipeline -> refinery -> heat + catalysts (heat comes from waste byproducts) -> gasoline -> pipeline -> tanker truck (uses some diesel, a waste byproduct) -> gas station -> car -> combustion -> mechanical energy -> transmission -> wheels -> motion
For EVs:
Oil / NG in the ground -> pumps -> oil / NG in a pipeline -> power plant. Now, the energy powering the power plant could also come from nuclear or coal, but up to now everything is basically the same.
combustion -> mechanical energy -> electrical energy -> transmission via power lines (lots of loss here) -> car battery. At this point, you think that energy stored in the battery is the same as gasoline in a tank, but it is not even close.
car battery -> electric motor -> mechanical energy -> wheels -> motion
(Note that EVs don't need a transmission.)
The big differences between EVs and ICE:
* Converting fuel to heat to mechanical energy to electrical energy and then back to mechanical energy is lossy compared to just converting fuel to heat to mechanical energy.
* Transmitting power via power lines is way less efficient than transporting fuel / oil via pipelines and tanker ships.
* The weight of the batteries vs. weight of gasoline. Batteries weigh a lot more than gas does, and it can't store a comparable amount of useful energy.
* The time it takes to recharge vs. fill up a tank of gas. I would not want to be anywhere near a recharging station that could recharge an EV in the same amount of time it takes to refuel a car.
EVs offer NO advantage over ICE. In fact, it's very much worse for the environment!
RE Refining: People think this is complicated but it is not. Once you have the equipment in place, the inputs are maintenance and occasionally swapping out the catalyst. The waste byproducts of the refining process are either cracked to make more gasoline or burned to create heat that powers the process. They literally just boil crude oil and cool it down again to refine it.
Remember, much of the energy in gasoline comes from the air!
But besides this fact, the total energy spent to produce a mile of travel for an EV is always going to be way higher than the total energy spent for a mile of travel in an ICE.
When people compare EVs to gas cars, they always compare apples to oranges. They forget what it takes to generate and transmit electrical power in the first place. Combined with the lie that we can harvest energy with wind or solar (we can't -- they take more energy to produce than they can produce in their lifetime).
I always draw this picture to help people understand.
For ICE:
Oil in the ground -> pumps -> oil in a pipeline -> refinery -> heat + catalysts (heat comes from waste byproducts) -> gasoline -> pipeline -> tanker truck (uses some diesel, a waste byproduct) -> gas station -> car -> combustion -> mechanical energy -> transmission -> wheels -> motion
For EVs:
Oil / NG in the ground -> pumps -> oil / NG in a pipeline -> power plant. Now, the energy powering the power plant could also come from nuclear or coal, but up to now everything is basically the same.
combustion -> mechanical energy -> electrical energy -> transmission via power lines (lots of loss here) -> car battery. At this point, you think that energy stored in the battery is the same as gasoline in a tank, but it is not even close.
car battery -> electric motor -> mechanical energy -> wheels -> motion
(Note that EVs don't need a transmission.)
The big differences between EVs and ICE:
* Converting fuel to heat to mechanical energy to electrical energy and then back to mechanical energy is lossy compared to just converting fuel to heat to mechanical energy.
* Transmitting power via power lines is way less efficient than transporting fuel / oil via pipelines and tanker ships.
* The weight of the batteries vs. weight of gasoline. Batteries weigh a lot more than gas does, and it can't store a comparable amount of useful energy.
* The time it takes to recharge vs. fill up a tank of gas. I would not want to be anywhere near a recharging station that could recharge an EV in the same amount of time it takes to refuel a car.
EVs offer NO advantage over ICE. In fact, it's very much worse for the environment!
RE Refining: People think this is complicated but it is not. Once you have the equipment in place, the inputs are maintenance and occasionally swapping out the catalyst. The waste byproducts of the refining process are either cracked to make more gasoline or burned to create heat that powers the process. They literally just boil crude oil and cool it down again to refine it.