Because a power plant burns enough hydrocarbons to transport a car for a hundred miles.
- Thermo-mechanical/
- Mechanical to electrical/
- Transmission and
- charging your battery
About 1/2 to 1/3 of the net fuel equivalent
- Transporting crude oil
- Refinery of oil
- transporting gasoline
- To heat/manufacture energy, you can burn gasoline
Internal combustion engines aren’t thermally efficient so they lose a lot of heat to the radiator, engine block, and tailpipe.
If all energy is from hydrocarbons, EVs will consume 1/3 to 1/2 of the energy and emit 1/3 to 1/2 of the carbon. If you add renewables wind, solar and thermal energy to the mix, then EVs will replace a lot of oil and coal. It is much easier to control and regulate power plant emissions in a small number of locations. You only need to apply for a few locations when you have improved emission control methods, and not 150 million mobile vehicles.