Only a fool or a commentator with an ax to grind would take such nonsense (i.e. Spinella, Sudbury) seriously.
Cecil Adams -
STRAIGHTDOPE - April 4, 2008
As long as they repeat it in videos like this, we'll call it out. --Ed.
...How much energy is lost getting electricity from the power plant to your PHEV or BEV? Plenty. In the U.S. right now, about 70 percent of the energy used to make electricity — more than four million gigawatt-hours — comes from fossil fuels. About 70 percent of that amount is wasted generating the power and transmitting it to your door. Additional energy is lost when charging batteries and running electric motors. Overall, electric cars use fossil fuel at 20 to 25 percent efficiency, but dismal as that sounds, it beats an internal-combustion car, which typically operates at about 15 percent efficiency. An HEV uses around 0.48-0.74 kilowatt-hours per mile, while PHEVs in electric mode and BEVs use 0.18-0.46 kWh per mile. By contrast, a conventional car getting 25 MPG uses 1.35 kWh/mile. To put the issue in more familiar terms, a PHEV or BEV offers fuel economy equivalent to as much as 188 miles per gallon....
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