Winnebago Electric Motorhome on a F-53 chassis

Chainwright wrote:
No no no. No pie in the sky nothing. At the end of the day it's becoming about efficiency. You have to ask yourself what is MORE efficient, a Combustion Engine or an Electric motor?
The second law of thermodynamics puts a fundamental limit on the thermal efficiency of all heat engines. Max efficiency of combustion engines fueled by petroleum is 20-25%, diesel tops off at 40%. electric engines can be more than 90% efficient and even up to 98% efficient, but even at 75% it would be a win win.
Yeah, back in 1906 Automotive technology was "Pie in the sky tech" too. Well we see how that went.

Efficiency is not really comparable. The electricity must come from somewhere, currently in the US the majority is from a heat engine running from fossil fuels. So while the electric motor is 90% efficient at turning electricity into motion, the power plant is still turning fossil fuels into motion limited by Carnot. Then you have losses turning motion into electricity in the generators, then you have transmission losses to the charger, then you have battery losses storing the electricity, then finally you have the electric motor losses.

So saying a diesel is 40% efficient while an electric motor is 90% is apples and oranges. The reality is much more complicated, electric cars can be more efficient end to end but its much closer than the straight motor efficiency difference. If you look at what Tesla is claiming for cost per mile for the semi its 20% more efficient than diesel, but I believe they are including maintenance costs to make thing look better and some low kwh electricity cost. So it actually a little closer than that for actual fuel efficiency.