[unclebilly]

So here's a question...

Energy conversion from one energy currency to another is not 100% efficient.

Where I live, electricity is largely generated by combusting natural gas, The heat from the chemical reaction of combusting the gas is converted to mechanical energy as it spins turbines high in turn are used to generate electricity.

The electricity is transmitted down hundreds of miles of power line with inherent losses on the way to the consumer. Once at the consumer's home, some of this electricity can then be used to charge batteries in electric cars (converted back to chemical energy).

As the electric car is used, the chemical energy in the batteries is converted back to electrical energy, which is then sent to electric motors which convert the electrical energy back to mechanical energy to turn the wheels on the car.

Let's look out some rough numbers to these conversion efficiencies, working backwards from the wheels.

I imagine the car couldn't be better than 80% efficient given A/C, driveline losses, wind drag, etc.
Electric motors are pretty efficient, lets wager 95%.
Battery conversion will be 95% efficient best case.
Battery charging will be 95% efficient best case.
Power line losses are probably under 2% but this is a guess so 98% efficient.
Electric generators at the power plant are likely no better than 80% efficient.
The gas turbine efficiency is less than 60%.

So what does this all mean?

32.2% overall efficiency. This is not far off what is already acheivable with CNG powered cars and trucks. You pull the gas from the existing gas pipeline infrastructure, compress it and burn it in the car which should have an overall efficiency around 20-25% with much less complications. Sure there is pipeline shrinkage and losses to compress the gas but this is a far simpler solution which accomplishes the same end goal...

The difference? Leonardo diCaprio won't buy a CNG car.