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It was my understanding that one of the reasons that electric cars are greener is because power plants (oil, coal, whatever) are more efficient at extracting en
by purplelobster 14y ago
It was my understanding that one of the reasons that electric cars are greener is because power plants (oil, coal, whatever) are more efficient at extracting energy from fossil fuels than cars are, so even though electric cars run on fossil fuels indirectly, they do so much more efficiently. The other benefit is that the source can easily be exchanged for something renewable, while for a gasoline car, that is impossible. I don't have the numbers on this though, so if I'm wrong please correct me.
- klipt 14y agoOf course, there are inefficiencies in charging/using a battery. Apparently when the source is coal, electric vehicles can have a carbon footprint comparable to some gas vehicles: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/automobiles/how-green-are-electric-cars-depends-on-where-you-plug-in.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/automobiles/how-green-are-... But replace that coal with nuclear...