4 ms·

> the numbers he quotes are just garbage. Could you be more specific? > the batteries they use are 100x less efficient in energy density. How is this measure

• scottlocklin 7y ago
  >How is this measured... Watts per kilogram. A kilo of gasoline contains about 100x the energy of a lithium ion battery. https://www.withouthotair.com/c26/page_199.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c26/page_199.shtml It's virtually impossible to beat hydrocarbons for chemical potential energy density. Diesel is the most dense commonly available such fuel. You put a liquid in a tank and move the complexity to the heat engine (which is 20-50% efficient depending on the size of the motor). Batteries don't even come close. Which is why if you put a fuel tank in a tesla with 1200lbs of gasoline in it (about 170 gallons), and operated it at comparable performance, its range would be considerably longer, despite lack of woo like regenerative braking and more efficient electric motors. It's one of the things Zubrin is complaining about in his mendacious article. Fair complaint; "gee the periodic table won't cooperate" -though metal hydrides are not terrible either, and in conjunction with fuel cells (potentially 100% efficient, despite his saying "nuh uh"), could be considerably better than a hydrocarbon car.