Per British thermal unit (BTU), in the United States, gasoline currently costs about 7.6 times as much as coal. Due to the prevalence of coal fired electricity generating stations in the country, electrically powered vehicles may provide a fuel cost savings over similar gasoline powered vehicles. Fuel costs for electric vehicles have been reported to cost about $0.045 per mile to operate. Higher efficiency, gasoline operated automobiles such as the Toyota Corolla have reported fuel costs of about $0.093 per mile. This paper provides a first glance examination of electrically powered and gasoline powered vehicles in the United States. While gasoline costs continue to rise, a cheap, environmentally safe transportation alternative is needed to maintain the flexible lifestyle currently enjoyed by Americans. The cycle energy efficiency of coal produced electricity for personal transportation is much lower than the energy efficiency of gasoline, but the large cost differences between these two forms of fossil fuels may provide a temporary fix to a looming transportation crisis in the United States. The long-term environmental effects of an electrically powered, private transportation fleet could prove catastrophic due to increased use of coal and accompanying combustion product air pollution, but clean, renewable, electricity producing technologies may support more prolific long-term use of electrically powered transportation modes.
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ASME 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the Heat Transfer, Fluids Engineering, and 3rd Energy Nanotechnology Conferences
August 10–14, 2008
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Advanced Energy Systems Division and Solar Energy Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4319-2
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
A Fuels Cost Comparison of Gasoline and Electric Powered Vehicles
George Ford,
George Ford
Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Search for other works by this author on:
Paul Yanik
Paul Yanik
Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Search for other works by this author on:
George Ford
Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Paul Yanik
Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Paper No:
ES2008-54238, pp. 471-476; 6 pages
Published Online:
June 22, 2009
Citation
Ford, G, & Yanik, P. "A Fuels Cost Comparison of Gasoline and Electric Powered Vehicles." Proceedings of the ASME 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the Heat Transfer, Fluids Engineering, and 3rd Energy Nanotechnology Conferences. ASME 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability, Volume 1. Jacksonville, Florida, USA. August 10–14, 2008. pp. 471-476. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ES2008-54238
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