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Old 04-28-2010, 06:43 PM   #9 (permalink)
aerohead
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf View Post
1) Over 6+ years and close to 90K miles, my Insight has averaged 71.4 mpg, in what are not usually the best conditions for getting good fuel economy.

2) Internal combustion engines are very inefficient. Let's be generous, and say the Insight's engine averages 25% efficiency.

3) Likewise, assume an electric drive is only 75% efficient. This makes the math easy, just multiply by 3.

So with a pure electric Insight, I might expect 3 * 71.4 = 214.2 mpg equivalent.
james,somewhere,in another thread we did a workup of the total energy balance of a plug-in electric car,based on coal-fired generation and found it no better,and I think,actually less than an I.C. car.
The good news,was that the electricity could be provided from renewables,however,the overall efficiency isn't any better,it's just cleaner.
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