If most electricity for the EV comes from coal-fired power plants, than isn diesel cleaner?
As the EPA says, diesel emits more carbon dioxide per gallon (22.2 pounds) than gasoline (19.4 pounds). One may drive longer on a gallon of diesel, but apart from carbon dioxide there are particles included in diesel emissions that affect health and that act as a greenhouse gas. Furthermore, these particles end up on glaciers, ice and snow, causing it to melt, resulting in albedo change. Electric cars cause less emissions, even if the electricity came from coal-fired power plants. When cars drive on fossil fuel, only a small part of the energy actually powers the wheels, in the case of gasoline it’s only 20%. Most of the fuel burned turns into heat. For a closer look at ways to compare how clean and efficient cars are, see the Automotive X Prize and the EPA references and the various EPA calculations to work things out. In the above image, Tesla uses distance (km) per megaJoule (MJ) to compare the efficiency of different cars. Note that the Tesla is built for speed and fast acceleratio
Related Questions
- How will the United States have enough electricity for the economy to grow if new coal-fired power plants aren’t built?
- How can electricity be cleaner than gasoline when (in most places) its produced using dirty coal burning power plants?
- If most electricity for the EV comes from coal-fired power plants, than isn diesel cleaner?
