Quote:
Originally posted by markjenn
the absolutely theoretical efficiency (no losses whatsoever) of an IC engine OF ANY TYPE is around 30%.
The most efficent coal-fired and gas-fired powerplants can do quite a bit better than IC engines in cars because they run at higher temperatures and there are economies of scale, but efficiencies are still in the 35-40% range.
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Interesting - love those kind of facts (where's Dixie Lee Ray?). I have always been a little skeptical of the green car "statistics" because the electrical generation process was left out of the equation. But based on those numbers I guess we're gaining 5 to 10 % efficiency, which is very significant as a percentage improvement over 30% (up to 1/3 better). But one probably needs to account for the power needed to manufacture the batteries and transmission loses from the power plant to your home, etc., as well.