Those pesky new-fangled EV’s…
Here in the U.S., the first successful electric car made its debut around 1890 thanks to William Morrison, a chemist who lived in Des Moines, Iowa. His six-passenger vehicle capable of a top speed of 14 miles per hour was little more than an electrified wagon, but it helped spark interest in electric vehicles.
Only in the sense of shape and scope are we past problems brought about by our choice of how we get from point A to B. We still have the problem of coping with what comes out of the engines we choose to power that transport.
One hundred twenty years ago the problem showed up as too much horse poop in the city streets. Today, too much of what comes out of the back end of our cars is affecting much more than our olfactory systems and messing up our footwear. It’s threatening our way of life and the very existence of future humans on this earth we call home.
But the nay-sayer’s message has not changed in the 120 years that has passed, it is the same. And it is still driven by the same reluctance to change and the inability to recognize the dangers of continuing to foul our own nest.
To get an idea of how things might have evolved if the guys who worked in the stable in 1903 had had their way, just imagine today’s world with real horsepower using hay and oats for fuel.
Our city streets would have multiple layers of horse pies in them! Even worse, think about a real horse-powered Boeing 747 passing over your house! … 
Won’t consider one until the fires stop and environmental damage caused by charging gets down to equate to ICE power. My reading indicated the EVs are equivalent to a 6mpg car. I’ll keep my '90, '93, 04 domestics going - repairs have been minor, and they have great range for trips.
Do you have sources for this?
Fact… there are more than 150 fuel fires in ICE vehicles in America every day .
Fact… 1990 era gasoline automotive engine efficiency is 25% to 35% MAX
Fact… A modern BEV motor averages an efficiency of OVER 85%
Our plugin hybrid gets 33 miles per charge, and gets about 35 mpg when not in EV mode. Thus, one charge saves ~1 gallon of gas. Two-thirds of our electricity comes from hydro power. 80% of our driving is in EV mode. I don’t know what the total carbon footprint of building the car was versus the carbon footprint of an equivalent ICE car, but long-term the overall carbon footprint of owning this car will be less than an ICE car.
Seems like a good thing to me.
Big difference, ICE fires can be readily put out, often by the motorists own fire extinguisher. Contrarily, the accepted means of handling an EV fire is to let the burn out, removing any other nearby vehicles IF POSSIBLE. I won’t park near an EV and am awaiting major insurance, vehicle and homeowners’ resulting from the combustion of parked EVs that take the home and probably family with it while charging or just resting overnight. Yes the EV unit efficiency is high, but before the juice gets to it, a lot of coal, oil, gas is burned along the production chain. The only reason EVs even exist are because of the huge government (aka forced taxpayer) cash input into production of the product, its motive power, etc. It is not self-sustaining, and now further taxation on non-owners is on the horizon to compensate for lack of fuel taxes by from the EV freeloaders on our highways.
Use on-air with or without attribution,
Bob, Lansdale
Currently, 32 states charge an EV tax (easily looked up) to make up for the loss in revenue from gas taxes. More will follow. Like many of these states, I pay higher fees for my plugin which add up to MORE than I would pay in gas taxes. Clark has often said that the additional fees he pays for his Tesla are much more than he would pay in gas taxes for his ICE car. So, your general statement about EV freeloaders is without merit.
OK, but for that comparison to be useful, you have to consider the efficiency of the power generation and transmission. Power transmission losses can be significant, though the combined losses in generation and transmission are still less in most cases than individual car engines. Emission controls are far cheaper and easier on power plants than on millions of individual vehicles.
I was giving the ICE car a break.
While most BEVs have a one-speed motor-to-road setup and produce enough torque to move the vehicle from a dead stop to highway speeds using from zero to 10,000 or even 20,000 RPM,
But an ICE vehicle must use a system of clutches and different gear ratios in a complicated automatic or manual transmission between the engine and the road. . That’s because an automotive ICE gasoline engine does not produce sufficient torque to drive the wheels and move the car reliably until it reaches 1,000 to 2,000 RPM and max out at less than 8-9k, after that things start coming apart. Most modern ICE cars come with 5-speed transmissions and some have up to eight. More shifts equal more friction. And friction between the crankshaft and the road of an ICE car costs efficiency and lower efficiency equals more fuel expense.
In short, it’s an indisputable fact that BEVs use energy much more efficiently than ICE cars. It’s not even close… 
You’re still ignoring electricity generation and transmission.
Electricity is a form of potential energy, so is gasoline. Both have production costs.
I pay 10 cents a kWh and one kWh takes me a little over 2 miles in my BEV, that’s 4.5 cents a mile.
I just paid $3.80 a gal for gasoline at Costco and that gallon of gasoline will take me approximately 22 around-town miles. That’s 17.2 cents a mile.
When I stopped by Costco to fill the ICE car’s tank on the way home from having the oil changed, ($38.45) and the brake fluid replaced, ($105.00.)
My BEV will never need an engine oil change and I use the brakes maybe once or twice during a typical around-town trip, I 'm pretty sure the brakes will last the life of the car because I usually get 60-90 thousand miles on brakes in an ICE car. My BEV scheduled maintenance is once every two years.
I have to assume that Costco has priced the gasoline they sold me for more than what they have paid for it. That means that all the costs associated with it, including production and distribution are less than the $3.80/gal I paid. The same goes for the electricity I buy from my utility company which would include production and transmission to my house.
So how would electricity costs vs gasoline costs affect the accuracy of my comparison?
Now you’ve switched from efficiency numbers to cost to operate. That’s not a bad proxy for overall energy efficiency. But it still doesn’t make any sense to compare the efficiency of a gasoline engine to the efficiency of an electric motor and ignore the different inputs.
I’m sure there’s a very good reason you’re spending $105 to replace brake fluid. Did they change the air in your tires for free? 
If you include electrical generation and transmission efficiency, wouldn’t you also have to include gasoline production and distribution efficiency as well? How would you do that other than the costs incurred in both cases?
Yes! Cost is probably the best way, but it’s still not exact, because there are external costs that aren’t reflected in the price.
Our capitalist system of cost and margin usually compensates for most costs related to real efficiency. The exceptions are usually driven by societal considerations and typically applied using tax breaks and/or penalties.
They drained the brake fluid, flushed the system and replaced the brake fluid with new. That’s done periodically so that moisture and contaminates don’t cause corrosion and/or wear in the wheel and master cylinders and pistons. That’s the major reason older brake systems fail.
Oh I know that. I’ve just didn’t know people do it separate from a regular brake job. Maybe you don’t drive enough to wear out brakes very often.
Since retirement I don’t drive very much. But in my working life, as an outside salesperson and RE broker I drove 25-50 thousand miles a year and my record was 75,000 in one year. I’ve never had to replaces pads or shoes before 75-90 thousand miles on my personal cars which ranged from a Porsche 911 to a Ford 3/4 ton P/U.
Most of the energy burning gas in an Ice car is simply waste heat. EVs are > than 80% efficient in converting energy to the motor. Gas is put in the tank and burned up, not very smart with a finite commodity. Lithium batteries are endlessly recyclable recovering 80% of the lithium and > 95% of other metals. Yes they use electricity but as the source of that becomes greener, they become cleaner. It is true that they require more GHG to manufacture, but after a time, there is a break even point after which gas cars continue to pollute and EVs are much cleaner, as much as 50% more. Consider that oil and gas is HEAVILY subsidized keeping prices artificially low compared to other countries. A lot of electricity is expended to get oil out of the ground, in refining, in shipping to gas stations and the environmental effects of fossil fuels is catastrophic.