Oddbean

I understand what you are saying, but I still don’t like EVs because I hate being dependent on electricity… in a world where solar energy is easy and abundant everywhere and wind generated energy is easy and cheap to tap into… sure, but that is definitely not the case in a lot of areas especially in northern regions where there are quite often weather related power outages, lack of sunlight for weeks and wind is not an easily harnessed resource… but you are also forgetting that ethanol can be produced at home and also biodiesel vehicles exist… also wood alcohol vehicles have been made and used one of the guys on the Mountain Men show drove around for a couple seasons in a truck powered by wood alcohol… EVs have a long way to go in my opinion to be the best option.

The amount of energy that goes into making ethanol far exceeds the amount of energy you can extract just by burning the entire plant. Electricity produced at reasonable scales extracts 1/2 of the energy from combustion. The waste heat is often used for heating either municipalities or industrial chemical processes. Thermodynamically, you do not get better efficiency than 50%. Once its converted to electeicity, the energy is delivered to your battery at nearly 100% (yes i know its less, but for argument's sake it might as well be). Lithium ion batteries, a true modern miracle, have very very low energy loss during charging, storage and discharge. With alcohol, if you were 1% efficient you'd be lucky; this if you include solar energy conversion to plant sugars, chemical spraying, harvesting, drying, mashing, distilling and delivery.

Ok but I can still make ethol alcohol in my kitchen during a very cloudy and snowy 4-6 months of winter when solar panels can’t produce much energy and my electricity from the power companies are dependent on whether a tree falls on a line a few miles away or a vehicle slides off the road and takes out a power pole, both have happened and both have taken days and week to restore power.