EVs make sense to me now
I keep writing a post full of data, but then I want to revisit my assumptions and check things. So let's keep it simple:
I assumed at the start that "MPGe" was more fake showmanship to push people into buying EVs. "Zero tailpipe emissions" seemed like a clever way to hide dirty power plants from the picture. The thoughts had a very conspiratorial shape.
But then I learned about the Seven📺 for the automotive X-Prize via Aging Wheels YouTube. "[The gas contenders] had the range, and had to figure out efficiency; we had the efficiency [with electric motors], and had to figure out range." Hmm.
An unexpected influence was Aging Wheels again,📺 getting 1.93 mi/kWh with an unladen Silverado EV. That was the thing that made me think, "I could get a real-world cost per mile on this," and that's where all the numbers and scenarios come into it.
Meanwhile, I had moved from a house with a gas furnace to one with an oil furnace and a wood stove; the relative consumption of these fuels seem to match the BTU conversions pretty well. MPGe is, at its heart, just another energy/BTU conversion going on.
The final influence I can identify is the Technology Connections YouTube, talking about how home solar could charge EVs off-grid. I think it's this one,📺 but I didn't rewatch to be sure. Regardless, grid-independence is definitely a superpower that even a hybrid (not counting PHEVs) can't match.
All in all, I've come around: EVs make a lot of sense overall, and even more if they can be charged without combusting something upstream.