EV vs ICE - Foot to the Floor!
What is the 'WHY' to remember around the transition from ICE to EV?
We hear a lot about the transition to EV from ICE [internal combustion engines]. There is always a lot of media discussion, both positive and negative. It is important to remember the WHY amongst all the noise.
Fuel on the Fire
Around 75% of crude oil is mainly used as a combustible fuel and only around 25% is used as a raw material to produce petrochemicals olefins (including ethylene and propylene) and aromatics (including benzene, toluene, and xylene isomers).
Most pharmaceuticals are also derived from petrochemicals (phenol, benzene, and other aromatics). There is a very very long list of oil-based products that touch every part of our society, across clothes, plastics, healthcare, electronics and beyond. More reading here.
Oil-derived products will be with us for a very long time. ⚫
It's essential where we have viable alternatives, we should look to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel and the resulting emissions. We continue to burn oil in our vehicles and still use fossil fuels to generate heat and electricity, although we have zero tailpipe emission vehicles as an alternative.
Some interesting IEA Stats;
Private cars and vans were responsible for more than 25% of global oil use and around 10% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022.
Electric car sales neared 14 million in 2023, 95% of which were in China, Europe and the United States
Wasted Energy
An internal combustion engine converts the chemical energy of fuel into mechanical energy, but it is a poor converter in comparison to an electric motor. ICEVs are 3x less efficient than battery EVs. Most of the chemical energy of the fuel is turned into waste heat energy that heats water in a radiator and combustion engine block. ♨️
Only a fraction of this energy is used to move a vehicle (∼25%). 🤯
A real-world Comparison
What does this look like in real-world terms?
Let's take old vs new - the classic VW Golf and its EV equivalent, the VW ID.3.
Here we have used the UK's carbon grid intensity data from 2023 to produce electricity to charge our EV. It was a record low of 162 gCO2/kWh, an 18% reduction from 2022.
You can see the live dashboard from the UK's NESO here.
But the UK grid still has around 33% of its electricity generated by fossil fuels, so over the coming years, with the exponential increase in renewable energy electricity generation, that carbon intensity figure will fall, and EVs, in turn, will be even cleaner by comparison.
For the same 267km / 42kWh output of mechanical energy, it is clear to see the huge difference in tank-to-wheel efficiency, waste heat and x4 CO2e kg, based on the current UK [only partially decarbonised] electricity grid.
Alternative Fuels
ICEVs simply produce a lot of waste heat and the use of this heat is very problematic. Burning fossil fuels produces a lot of fossil CO2 emissions. Burning biofuels or e-fuels, biogenic CO2 is produced, but the problem with efficiency is the same.
Simply burning fuels, even alternative fules, is not the answer. A topic for another article.
The Challenge
There are around 1.475 billion vehicles in the world. Yes, BILLION.
More car volume data, the numbers are quite staggering from around the globe. 🌍
In climate tech terms, EV and battery technology are relatively mature markets that are scaling globally. There are still bumps in the road - see the recent Northvolt collapse as the EU's automotive answer to the Far East's battery dominance.
We have the technology to massively impact our decarbonisation goals and reduce health issues from emissions. Now it's time to put our foot down on the accelerator of the EV transition.
About the Author
Michael Sura
Michael is an energy and transport analyst, strategist, and advisor based in Slovakia 🇸🇰
