When comparing EVs (Electric Vehicles) and ICE (Internal Combusion Engion) vehicles, don’t try to standardize on some strange new concept like MPGe. Just keep things in the core units of each vehicle: use ‘kWh’ for EVs and ‘gallons’ for ICE vehicles. If you stay with these core energy units and the prices for each, you can sanely understand compare the different types in cost and distance (and other aspects).

A lot of EV discussions use misleading or fabricated terminology that make understanding the benefits and drawbacks of EVs (vs. each other and vs. ICE vehicles) more difficult than necessary.

First, there are only two things directly comparable about two vehicles: ‘cost’ and ‘distance’ [ignoring towing, passenger capacity, etc.]. There are no direct equivalents between [for example] MPG and some EV-equivalent. It is simpler to keep the things that are different… well… different.

For EVs, the equivalent of ‘gas’ is simply called ‘electrical energy’. The most common unit of energy for larger electric devices [an EV is one of those] is a Kilowatt (kW) sustained for an hour of usage… hence ‘kWh’. With this one unit we can now “completely” understand an EV and compare it to an ICE vehicle.

For example:

  • My EV car gets 4 miles per kWh
  • And its ‘tank’ holds 70+ kWh
  • So it can travel 280+ miles
  • It costs: $0.50/kWh at a supercharger: 8 miles / dollar or $12 for 100 miles
  • It costs: $0.15/kWh at home: 24 miles / dollar or $4 for 100 miles
  • It takes: 10Amp at ~120V for an hour to produce 1kWh (4 miles); 50Amps at ~240V to produce 10kWh (20 miles)
  • At home, charging is 50Amps @ 240V, so is about 20 miles/hour, or 200 miles / overnight
  • At a good supercharger, charging is 250kW, but the last 20% can’t refill at anything close to 250kW (a weirdness gas doesn’t have to any real extent). But in 20 minutes or less, I can ‘refuel’ about 60kWh or 240 miles.

For the ICE vehicle I drive (a truck… so not really a fair comparison):

  • My ICE vehicle gets 20 mpg
  • Its tank holds about 25 gallons
  • So it can travel 500 miles
  • It costs: $5+/gallon : 4 miles / dollar or $25 for 100 miles
  • It takes about 5 minutes to refill the tank

Note the ICE vehicle above can hold 7 adults, tow 8K, fit all my belongings [just kidding], so the comparison is not exactly fair. A smaller ICE will get better MPG, so adjust that to match your situation. Your price for home kWh could be greater or less depending on utility, solar, etc. I can also change the EV I own from solar [for free ignoring the solar panel purchase expense], which is an option for others as well.