Have electric vehicles changed the narrative of using public transit in order to reduce environmental impact? (Reddit)

Reddit:

This came up when four of us were about to go to a baseball game 35 miles away. I assumed I would be taking us all in my EV until a group member suggested taking the train in since it stops right by the ballpark. As we were weighing the pros and cons I said I think energy wise, it's better to take the EV. There was heavy disagreement to this statement.

I did some basic checking on the energy usage for light rail trains and estimates of energy usage, though varying greatly, seem to be around 400-500 Wh/passenger mile for a middle figure. For my 35-mile round trip, I figure the energy usage would be 70 mi/4(mi/kWh) or 17.5 kWh. Since four of us are making the trip, that is 280 passenger-miles. Divide that into 17500 Wh gives the energy usage of 62.5Wh per passenger-mile. That is way smaller then a light rail train energy usage.

Please fact check me. I may be making a grave error given how far these differences are. Or, is it correct and the public transit assumption of reducing energy usage is no longer valid?

submitted by /u/rgod8855
[link] [comments]

Read more on Reddit