Electric cars are far better than gasoline powered cars, both in terms of lifetime energy consumed and in terms of carbon footprint.
Analysts in this sector use what they call "life cycle costs" to sum up all the manufacturing, operation, and recycling costs, both in dollars and in CO2. The short answer is that unless you are fueling your electric car with pure coal based electricity, lifecycle costs of electric are far lower, both in dollars and in CO2.
These graphs are for Vancouver CA in 2018, so energy costs are similar to the US; however energy is represented in megajoules - there are 3.6 MJ in a KWH, and 1 MJ = .37 horsepower hours. It assumes 150,000Km of travel over the life of the car, about 93,000 miles.
Lifecycle CO2 costs (these include extracting & transporting oil)
The world has 8,000 gigawatts of installed electricity generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency. In theory, if the capacity ran 24-7 it could generate 69 million gigawatt hours of electricity annually.
The world consumed about 27 million gigawatt hours of electricity in 2019. That electricity warmed homes and ran businesses. What’s more, the world consumed the equivalent of roughly 28 million gigawatt hours of electrical energy to power its cars and trucks. That energy, of course, was stored in liquid fuel. Power plants didn’t have to generate it. Gasoline and diesel make most of the world’s vehicles go.
So 27 plus 28 is 56. The world needs 56 million gigawatt hours to keep the lights on as well as drive cars and trucks. There is 69 million gigawatt hours of capacity.No problem. But the generating capacity of wind and solar, of course, can’t be “on” 100% of the time. And even coal, nuclear, and hydro power plants have to take maintenance downtime. Still, there looks to be some spare generating capacity and the world’s 2 billion or so vehicles won’t convert to battery power all at once.
They're expensive and small and I've read that gas powered cars are cheaper to fuel. Electricity will be expensive. And some people will need time to change over. @ElwoodBlues
I don't own a Ford f150. I've never owned one or a car that expensive on gas. And I'm talking about now not a lifetime from now. Electric cars should be integrated a bit slower. And I was just saying cover the facts because I'm not that smart. @ElwoodBlues https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/Services/Pages/natural-gas-electricity-cost-comparison.aspx?sa=mn&au=bus
SW-User
@Spoiledbrat That looks like a pretty complex article (brought to you and paid for by Centre Point Energy🤦♂️) that you have cited.
Were you able to read and understand it because it agreed with your worldview?
My point was "skip the copy and paste and write it in your own words". Did that go over your head? The article I cited was easier to read than this user's. And all I did was google 'how expensive will it be to run electric cars' and I did that weeks ago (for my own benefit not to impress anyone.) I'm not allowed to do that without getting accused of searching out specific data ? I'm not allowed to disagree with you? I'm just not going to take the first post I read about it as absolute truth. Obviously I pointed that he was wrong and what had he said about my opinion before the link I posted, "FALSE". @SW-User
My point was "skip the copy and paste and write it in your own words".
Then why didn't you say that?
I'm sorry, but apart from the initial outlay, EVs are far cheaper to run (especially if you charge them at night), you pay no road tax, far less insurance, and a hell of a lot less in maintenance costs.
You think gas prices are going to come down any time soon?
@Spoiledbrat That article you cited doesn't support your claim. That article was a comparison for heating, not transportation. And even the heating comparison was biased, because it didn't consider heat pumps when converting electricity to therms.
@SW-User Indeed. And the lifecyle energy costs I cited were done in 2018, when gasoline prices were far lower. Even at those prices, lifetime energy costs of electric vehicles are about half those of equivalent gasoline cars.
It's going to depend on what kind of electric vehicle one buys, (as some are more efficient than others) where they charge it and what they use it for t determine whether or not it's cheaper. But I also read that electric cars are more expensive to buy than gas powdered cars. a@ElwoodBlues
That was directed at the other user but even if they are cheaper to power and maintain overall, that doesn't mean people can afford them as they are expensive. I'm for slower integration of electric cars into society. @SW-User
you are putting a demand for more electricity - and renewable energy only produces 20% of the electrical power in the US
Did you look at any of the data I presented? The bottom graph, labeled "Lifecycle energy costs" is about energy consumption. Did you notice that the lifecycle energy usage of the EV was about half that of the gas vehicle?
Perhaps this is counterintuitive, but it turns out burning fossil hydrocarbons in a grid scale electricity plant and then charging up batteries is FAR more efficient then fossil hydrocarbons in a gas powered car. FAR more efficient in terms of CO2 and in terms of ENERGY.
