greenhouse gas emissions – For Electric vehicles, HOW are miles per gallon equivalent (or L/100 Km) calculated, accounting for different sources of energy in the grid? – GWC Mag

None of any “equivalent” figures make any sense.

Electricity and amount of liquid fuel have no relation to each other. Any relation “estimated” would be totally and completely arbitrary.

For example, if you have a large open cycle internal combustion engine power plant, it might let’s say turn 45% of the energy content of a liquid fuel to electricity. So 1 liter of gasoline (~32 MJ, 8.9 kWh) would be about 4 kWh at 45% efficiency.

But wait! Combined cycle power plants exist and achieve 55% efficiency. So maybe it should be 4.9 kWh? But there’s no way to decide whether 1 liter corresponds to 4 kWh or 4.9 kWh.

Also, electricity distribution efficiency varies, some areas might have better efficiency than others. How are you planning to take this into account?

You could consider CO₂ emissions too. But emissions vary not only based on the location (for example, the Finnish electricity grid is very clean), but also based on time (is it windy, are some nuclear plants under scheduled maintenance?). Also do consider that electricity grids become all the time less reliant on fossil fuels, so over the 20-year life cycle of an electric vehicle, in the middle of it (after 10 years from now), electricity will create less emissions than it creates today.

I personally think that what you should consider is not emissions but total cost of ownership. Where I live today, if considering purchase of a new car, electricity wins so clearly there’s no competition. But when considering whether I retain my old car or purchase a new one, the old car clearly wins. Unfortunately, eventually it will become so worn that I have to buy a new car, and this will be the time I will switch to electric vehicles.

It’s true that battery manufacturing creates emissions, but it’s a non-mobile emission source so easy to decarbonize. Most likely a large share of the energy comes from electricity when you manufacture batteries. About the only problem is that many batteries are from China and there electricity production isn’t so clean yet.