However, the entire system for gas engines is something like this: pump oil (defend regions where oil is pumped), transport, refine(burn fuel to refine), transport to station (burn fuel), fill tank, burn fuel, work.
For the electrical car it's something like: pump or dig fuel (and/or: capture photons, harness water, harness geo-thermal, wind, nuclear), transport (not always), burn fuel to produce electricity (not always), transmit electricity (to any electrical outlet), charge battery, run electrical motor, work.
Personally, I don't think the efficiency losses areas bad for E as you think. But regardless, there's only one real source for gas, many different sources for E with production efficiencies getting better all the time.
Don't get me wrong, I like the deep throaty roar of a RAT motor as much as any gearhead, and I would absolutely love to have a 1920's/30's era barrelback woody with a Liberty 12 sucking down high test avgas.
But I like E; clean efficient, quiet. Way cheaper in the long run, and I'm not sending $$$ to unstable sand castles in the ME. And I absolutely love to see the American can do spirit alive in guys that do things like this on their own.
Oh, I agree.
My point is that the entire fuel cycle should be examined for its efficiency, with all inputs and outputs included.
When comparing efficiency between electric and IC cars, too many people act as if the electricity coming out of the wall socket was the start of the energy process, rather than a long ways down the line.
To get a true comparison, you could figure how much of the energy from two barrels of oil produces useful work. One barrel is burned to produce electricity and used to drive an electric car, the other is refined to gasoline and used to drive an otherwise identical IC car.
My estimate is that the electric car is about 25% more efficient when compared this way.
A big issue nobody wants to talk about is that construction and maintenance of roads is paid for by fuel taxes. When some critical mass of electric cars is reached, they’ll need to be taxed separately, putting a big dent into their cost advantage. Or the money will have to be provided through taxing somebody else so electric car owners can be subsidized. We’re talking very large sums of money here.