Miles Per Gallon of Gasoline Equivalent (MPGe)
Plug-in electric vehicles (and plug-in-hybrids) present a paradigm shift in articulating the monetary costs of moving a passenger vehicle down the road.
Charts on this page show variable costs of electricity for the BTU equivalent of a Gallon of Gasoline at select local retail prices. That does not address the relative thermal efficiency of an electric traction motor (80% to 99%) vs the thermal efficiency of an internal combustion engine (15% to 25%). This is a significant difference.
The US EPA has addressed this difference with a new standard for electric vehicles. In simple terms, it compares the work delivered by a gallon of gasoline in a passenger vehicle, to the work done by a quantity of electrical Kilowatt Hours, that costs the same as that gallon of regular. The standard is called Miles Per Gallon of gasoline Equivalent or MPGe.
If unleaded regular costs $3.499 (Q4, 2012) MPGe is the distance you'll travel on $3.499 worth of electricity at $0.119/KWh (national average).
Under this standard, a 2012 Nissan Leaf delivers an MPGe of 92-106.
The methodology of this calculation is evolving, but it's a good start. The cost of gasoline shifts constantly, but this type of standard needs to stay fixed for about a year, so weekly cost shifts need to be addressed at some point. At the time you read these words calculations may or may not include losses from converting "grid" power to "battery charging" energy, or energy losses during battery charging and storage.
Read more about this topic: Gasoline Gallon Equivalent
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