Unless you use hydro or wind or solar or nuclear energy the electric cars are a scam in terms of saving the planet or GREEN energy. There is an incredible amount of energy wasted producing electricity and having it delivered to a house or business [up to 75% I believe]. Really, you might not be using fuel in the car you are just using the fuel from burned in another part of the country - at an incredible waste. Yup, it got me 'started'.
Before I start I am well -
In many ways you're right.
But - There are many aspects that need to be considered. It isn't clear cut.
The efficiency of electricity generation and distribution is around 25% - 30% in total for fossil fuel based generation. Only 40% of input energy is recovered in steam turbines. That's the biggest loss.
Wind and hydro is up in the nineties but then you have to offset the infrastructure costs.
However - Diesel engines are only 30% efficient (that's discounting the losses incurred in getting the fuel to you).
Petrol is even less efficient.
Electric motors are very efficient, but, overall I guess centralised power generation and use in cars is marginally more efficient than petrol & diesel powered cars. This discounts the losses in extracting oil, refining it and getting it to the petrol station.
The main cost and losses in electricity generation from fossil fuels is keeping the plant running at low load. Technology will help load balancing enormously allowing more flexible and efficient ways of using available power.
It's all a very complex set of issues, especially when you look at the small scale.
Renewable has to be the way to go. Those that don't want the blight will have to pay four times the cost for their electricity. Recently 40% of our power was generated using renewables. Because we can't store energy anywhere else it actually makes sense to store it in cells in cars. Norway has sufficient spare renewable power capacity they could afford for everyone to run electric vehicles and provide the power for free.
