Comment by bryanlarsen
1 day ago
Driving is wasteful. Cybertrucks and Prius's use similar amounts of energy per mile. Cybertruck is 0.4-0.5 kWh/mile, the Prius is 0.6-0.7 kWh/mile.
Of course the Prius Prime on electricity is way more efficient than both, but it still uses a lot more energy than a house.
European units (`Energy/100km`) work nicely here, lots of EVs are around `20 kWh/100km`, and most residential housing around here consumes less than `20kWh/day`, actually averaging `20kWh/day` would probably cover a well insulated house including heating (heatpump).
Yes, driving, compared to living, uses ridiculous amounts of energy.
With dimensional analysis you can cancel it all the way out until it's just Newtons, which is actually just the average drag force times some efficiency multiplier.
Dimensional analysis is a superpower honestly. Even in a software engineering career it's saved me from massive issues quite routinely
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I'm curious if you can elaborate further? Would that make the comparison clearer, or is it just a side-note on your part?
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For comparison my cargo ebike, which is not particularly efficient, consumes about 30 Wh/mi (0.03kWh/mi) in medium assist while transporting an adult and two kids.
My road bike consumes energy bars! And fruit!
Surprisingly enough, this makes acoustic bikes less carbon efficient per unit distance than electric ones, depending on the details of your diet. Of course, once the emissions are that low, this is more a curiosity than actionable insight (beyond the typical "less meat/dairy = lower emissions").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW5b8_KBtT8
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What a coincidence, my cargo bike that regularly takes 50kg of cargo runs on the same stuff !
So you ride around town in a PacMan? Aren't ghosts a problem?
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I get 30 miles per sandwich! Beat that EV owners! :P
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Are those numbers right? 0.4 kWh/mile is 24.85 kWh/100km compared to about 14 kWh/100km my Kia Niro EV uses.
Those numbers are saying that:
- the Cybertruck uses almost twice as much energy as your Niro EV
- the 40% efficient Prius uses about 2.5x as much energy as your 95% efficient Niro EV.
what seems off?
Driving is not wasteful. Energy is not a scarce thing in the universe.
Using energy is not bad. Creating excess carbon emissions is bad.
We need to be able to hold two ideas in our heads instead of blindly repeating trendy religious dogma.
Driving uses a lot of energy. It's wasteful if you aren't getting a good use out of it (of which just driving around to relax could me considered a good use, but of which some manager requiring RTO might not be).