Technology

59207 readers

2520 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

491

1 in 5 new car sales globally were EVs in 2023, and that's curbed oil demand – IEA (electrek.co)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

97 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 44 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (11 children)

I often hear people saying "But where does the electricity for the EV come from? Driving an EV is not better than driving a diesel."

They have to realize that the thiny ICE in your car is optimised for weight, and has an efficiency of 30-35%. So about ⅔ of the fossil fuel is turned into heat and blown out of the exhaust. Compare that to the turbine in a coal or gas plant, which can archive up to 90% efficiency.

And don't forget that an EV is an investment, which will likely still be on the road in 20 years time. The electricity mix at the moment is still rather fossil fuel heavy, but this will change completely within the next 10 years.

Edit: not 90% but 40% efficiency. See comments below

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Last time I looked (a few years ago), a 100% coal powered EV had similar emissions to a 60mpg car.

I doubt anywhere will still be coal powered in a decade, with how fast plants are closing. But that EV will still be there on its 3rd owner.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Different countries and states obviously have different electricity source mixes.

Here in the UK, coal accounts for around 1% of electricity. Natural gas is about 35%, biomass about 5%, and the rest is various clean renewables (wind, solar, hydro) or nuclear.

So although charging an EV is by no means fossil-fuel-free, it's considerably less fossil-fuel than an ICE car.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

So although charging an EV is by no means fossil-fuel-free, it’s considerably less fossil-fuel than an ICE car.

That was my point. Even in the worst case it's comparable to 60mpg.... No ICE gets 60mpg. And in a decade it'll be even better.

load more comments (9 replies)