[exiges]

Does anyone have figures on how much CO2 is generated (by a conventional power station) for the average charge ?

And how does this compare to CO2 from a petrol engine car.

 

[proddick]

Be careful that you do not compare tailpipe emissions of ICE vehicles with co2 from electricity used by EV or PHEV cars.

The industry compares 'well to wheel' emissions to identify the environmental impact and there are many reports on the internet. Of course using renewable electricity has the lowest impact and a lot of EV drivers buy green electricity and/or generate PV electric.

Paul R

 

[proddick]

Example

http://oi47.tinypic.com/dw6xk1.jpg

 

[Marshalls_chris]

Guys

This is the best I have found

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-e ... -grid-live

Chris

 

[Duncan]

Guys

This is the best I have found

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-e ... -grid-live

Chris

There's more detail if you click through the link on that page to http://www.earth.org.uk/_gridCarbonIntensityGB.html

To fully charge an Ampera/Volt from empty takes (according to Vauxhall) 12.7kWh, transmission losses are about 2% which takes that figure up to a round 13kWh.
According to today's earth.org.uk figures, if you had charged your car last night between 1am and 5am the average emissions would have been 408g/kWh, i.e. 5.3kg
If you charged it instead yesterday evening it would have taken 491g/kWh, i.e. 6.3kg CO2

1 gallon (UK) of petrol is equivalent to 14.3kg of CO2 (source http://www.carbonindependent.org/sources_car.htm). That is made up from 10.9kg directly emitted when you burn 1 gallon of petrol plus 3.4kg to cover refining and distribution.

There are probably an infinite number of ways to combine those figures but:
At best a battery range of 50 miles with 5.3kg/charge is 106g/mile. A worst case for battery is 30 miles with 6.3kg/charge which is 210g/mile.
For petrol, best case might be 50 mpg which is 286g/mile. My MX5 does nearer 30mpg i.e. 477g/mile.