How do you compare the fuel economies and efficiencies of electric versus petrol/diesel cars?

With the coming of electric vehicles, wouldn’t it be better to start referring to all vehicles economy as MP£ or Miles per Euro as standard rather than mpg? As an example, my Skoda Fabia Estate diesel tells me it is showing 63mpg. How do the electric v carbon fuels compare, price-wise?

Asked on 26 April 2021 by Bob Groves

Answered by Andrew Brady

The issue with your idea is it's very dependent on the cost of fuel. Just like with petrol, the cost of electricity varies a lot – anything from around 13p per kWh (at home) to 69p per kWh (at the most convenient motorway rapid chargers). There are ways of comparing the efficiency of electric vehicles – many manufacturers quote the distance an electric car can cover per kWh of electricity, which is probably the closest alternative to MPG. Another popular metric is kWh/100 miles – essentially, how much electricity is required for an electric car to cover 100 miles.

Tags: fuel economy mpg electric cars

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