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I depends on you location and driving in the city e.g. Prius can have less total CO2 emission than Tesla S if the electricity comes from fossil fuels. https://

I depends on you location and driving in the city e.g. Prius can have less total CO2 emission than Tesla S if the electricity comes from fossil fuels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM

tomp 8y ago
I find that hard to believe. So you're saying that Prius, despite being more complicated (as it needs to route both internal combustion and electric power to the wheels), has an electric motor/transmission more efficient than Tesla and internal combustion engine more efficient than power plants? The only way I think that's possible is if weight is taken into account, Prius seems to be a bit smaller and thus possibly lighter than Model S...
- curlypaul924 8y ago
  Are you taking into consideration the loss of energy in power transmission and distribution? (I also find the argument hard to believe, but I'd be interested in seeing a proper comparison)
  - tomp 8y ago
    Well, yeah, that's basically equivalent to saying that you'd save money by running an internal combustion engine at home, rather than buying electricity from the grid. Sounds unlikely - although there are potential savings to be had if you take into account the heat generated, which is lost from the powerplant but a household could use it for heating - check out mCHP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_combined_heat_and_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_combined_heat_and_power
    - curlypaul924 8y ago
      It's more like saying that you'd save fuel by running an equivalent ICE at home. You'd be unlikely to save money, because of economies of scale.
      - tomp 8y ago
        But I imagine that fuel is the vast majority of the cost, at least operational cost... and the initial investment is also at least to some extent dependent on the resources used (energy, matter).
- zamfi 8y ago
  I think this is possible if the Tesla’s electricity is coming from burning coal, which produces ~double the CO2 emissions per unit energy compared with gas. (Though this seems annoying to actually calculate, so I haven’t.) You would not be looking at efficiency from a energy/$ perspective, which is what industry power generators care about, but rather energy/ton of CO2, which they rarely care about.

tomp 8y ago

I find that hard to believe. So you're saying that Prius, despite being more complicated (as it needs to route both internal combustion and electric power to the wheels), has an electric motor/transmission more efficient than Tesla and internal combustion engine more efficient than power plants? The only way I think that's possible is if weight is taken into account, Prius seems to be a bit smaller and thus possibly lighter than Model S...

curlypaul924 8y ago
Are you taking into consideration the loss of energy in power transmission and distribution? (I also find the argument hard to believe, but I'd be interested in seeing a proper comparison)
- tomp 8y ago
  Well, yeah, that's basically equivalent to saying that you'd save money by running an internal combustion engine at home, rather than buying electricity from the grid. Sounds unlikely - although there are potential savings to be had if you take into account the heat generated, which is lost from the powerplant but a household could use it for heating - check out mCHP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_combined_heat_and_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_combined_heat_and_power
  - curlypaul924 8y ago
    It's more like saying that you'd save fuel by running an equivalent ICE at home. You'd be unlikely to save money, because of economies of scale.
    - tomp 8y ago
      But I imagine that fuel is the vast majority of the cost, at least operational cost... and the initial investment is also at least to some extent dependent on the resources used (energy, matter).
zamfi 8y ago
I think this is possible if the Tesla’s electricity is coming from burning coal, which produces ~double the CO2 emissions per unit energy compared with gas. (Though this seems annoying to actually calculate, so I haven’t.) You would not be looking at efficiency from a energy/$ perspective, which is what industry power generators care about, but rather energy/ton of CO2, which they rarely care about.