Karin Kirk

Yes, it's plenty. We do charge at home. I work at a ski area and it takes about an hour and a half of March sunshine on our roof to power a round trip to work. I think that's amazing.

No. Gas mileage is one way to measure efficiency.
The reason behind any given gas mileage figure is because of the operating efficiency of the vehicle.
If you wanted to compare EVs and ICE using distance traveled/units of energy you would get this exact same result.

300 miles, on average

I do, but that's thankfully not a prerequisite for understanding them.

Sadly, you are not correct. No regular gasoline ICE cars get an efficiency anywhere near that high.

Your example is a hybrid engine. It's making electricity, not turning a crankshaft.

Ah, got it. All the Bad Things you ascribe to heavy EVs are reserved only for EVs. An ICE car that is equally heavy (but pollutes way way more!) is just fine.
Thanks for making it so clear you're making a bad faith argument.

Whooo, nice! I live in a red state, so we don't get any extra incentives. OTOH, our solar array offsets some very dirty energy so that part is a big win for us.

Way to go in donating your old car! 🫡

Ah, I see. So now you're just talking about the many downsides of big cars. I agree. Big cars are terrible, and it does not matter what type of drivetrain they have. Let's make rules that encourage smaller cars, all around. 👍

Niiice! That is an awesome car, and you have a beautifully clean energy supply. Win win!

We have the sister car, Kia EV6, and a roof full of solar panels. Happy times.

ICE vehicles suffer the exact same problems, though. Both types of vehicles are inefficient at extreme temps. EVs are still much more efficient in every scenario.

Note that the diagram specifically says gasoline, not diesel. The numbers are correct. 🙂

Here you go! This diagram shows you how the efficiency changes depending on the source of electricity.

yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/elec...

Sure, but then 80% of that gasoline is wasted.

It doesn't matter that much what the energy density of gasoline is, considering that the majority of it ends up being useless in terms of moving you down the road. It might be dense energy, but it's still wasted energy.

Yeah, this is a common reply, but how energy dense is gasoline when you consider that 80% of it is wasted? Turns out, the density of the energy doesn't add up to all that much when you factor in how little of that energy actually propels you down the road.

haha, it's ok! I always learn from them. Often it helps me find my next topics to work on.

Yeah, some utilities offer a great deal on that. Others don't give any discount at all. YMMV, as they say.

In my case, I took a quick approach to use statewide data, rather than delving into every utility in the U.S. Certainly it can be done, but that's a much bigger scale of research effort.

I write a lot of articles for a lot of different audiences. If you don't agree with the framing on this one, that's really ok w/ me.

80% of your gas money is wasted and you get absolutely nothing for it. Maybe that framing is better for you?

Screenshot that reads: Besides lowering emissions and fighting climate change, using less energy overall is a win for land use, air and water pollution, and environmental justice, while also lowering the cost of driving for everyone. Efficiency is a beautiful thing.

Efficiency is exactly the same as gas mileage.

Here's the closing sentiment of this article. There are many ways to frame efficiency as a win. Cost is one of them, for sure!

(I've also written articles focused entirely on cost savings of EVs, such as yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/gaso...)

Yes! Exactly.

Here's a map (yes, I made this one too) that shows the price of home charging an EV in each state, put in terms of the price of a gallon of gasoline.

It's so much cheaper!

Source article and data: yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/gaso...

Most people don't love things that are wasteful or inefficient, or polluting. It makes tremendous practical difference – just as you said – in terms of cost.

80% of your gas money is going up in smoke, basically.

EVs really change the equation, and in a good way. People seem to like knowing that.

Electrifying transportation reduces emissions AND saves massive amounts of energy » Yale Climate Connections Electric vehicles are far more energy-efficient than traditional internal combustion vehicles.

Ah yes, you are right it's not in that article, it's in another article cited by that article.

yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/08/elec...

And the original data source is here:
www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml

Hope that helps - happy to answer any follow-ups!

I mean, if you're gonna do a sniff test, at least sniff with some accuracy.

Renewables were 24% of the U.S. grid in Oct 2025, the most recent month of data from EIA.gov.

It really isn't that hard to estimate things!

Thank you Zamafir! These are my most infamous diagrams yet, and I do love how they make the rounds so reliably.
Though I wish people linked to the article and/or the related diagram that shows various electricity sources, because that helps clear up many of the questions that inevitably come up.

The answers actually are not that hard!

Also, it doesn't take nearly 8 years to break even with the battery production. It's closer to 2 years, but it depends on the energy sources used in battery production and the energy sources used to charge the car.

Electric vehicles use half the energy of gas-powered vehicles » Yale Climate Connections They’re just much more efficient.

Well, that's the difference between a snapshot of a topic vs reading a whole article. Want a single quick takeaway? Look at a diagram. Want a deeper dive? Read an article. Both types of communication are useful.

But I would def prefer that this diagram not get posted without a link to more info.

Electric vehicles use half the energy of gas-powered vehicles » Yale Climate Connections They’re just much more efficient.

Good question! It's mostly heat. I wrote the Yale article and made these diagrams. The full scoop is here:
yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/elec...

Hi, I'm the author of those diagrams and yours is a common question that I answered with another diagram.

For more more context, see the original article:
yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/elec...

TL;DR - EVs are more efficient no matter what energy source is used to charge them!

@janrosenow.bsky.social I think it would be helpful if you posted the article that these infographics came from (it's my article.) There are easy answers to these questions and it makes an even stronger case if you share the other images and findings.
yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/elec...

I'm the author of that graphic. In its original context it is paired with another graphic that addresses your question.

Here's the original article yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/elec...

And the image that includes electricity generation. Transmission loss is ~ 5% so it's not a big factor.

John McPhee, Atchafalaya, in Control of Nature
There are some exquisite passages in there. I used to read it aloud to my Geo 101 class.