This concern with efficiency seems a little overblown especially when we start adding Grid loses and such- are we going to start calculating the energy it takes to drill, pump, transport, refine, transport, and pump gas. All the steps involved in taking oil from the ground to gas in your tank? Also if you want to be fair you’d have to add the energy and cost of having a foreign policy and military strategy based on protecting all these foreign energy resources.

If we need metrics to compare new vehicles the following may be more relative.

1. How many people will it transport, there’s no sense comparing a car built to transport 2 with one built to transport 5
2. Initial cost
3. Running cost per mile.
4. Total cost per mile - really only calculable at the end of the life of the vehicle but an estimate could be made.
5. Environmental cost per mile- global warming contribution , disease causing pollutants , other environmental damages.
6. Personal safety cost per mile -injuries and deaths
7. All the esthetics - driving enjoyment, beauty or cool factor

William,

   Regarding

      5. Environmental cost per mile-

How can this be calculated without knowing all the things in your first paragraph (grid efficiency, power plant efficiency, pumping energy, refining energy)? I don't think you can. A significant fraction of the environmental damage caused by our cars often occurs before the electrons or gasoline reaches the vehicles.

   So I think we are back to knowing the efficiency of the process to know the environmental damage.

Later,
John C. Briggs