Shocking Factoid of the Day: Gas cars use more electricity to go 100 miles than Electric Cars do!

[joshcryer]

19. Eh, while true, it's not particularly useful.

You might be able to make a ridiculous coal power car that directly mechanically converts the energy in the coal into useful work at 30% or so. A power plant can get 30% or so, too. Transmission line losses are about 7%, electric cars are about 80% efficient, in the end the electric car is about 20% efficient at converting coal into useful work.

A bargain when you consider that the coal based car is fantasy land, and coal gasification is itself going to require energy input, and I'd be surprised if it's less than what you'd use simply to refine oil as this study is discussing.

So you aren't wrong. Until you have your mass marketed coal powered car, it's a pointless discussion.

Meanwhile the cars that do exist, which run on fossil fuels, are less efficient than electrics.