https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transport

that table is thoroughly fascinating. i mean all of them, there’s more than one table on that article

apparently walking is the most energy-efficient transport mode of all?!?!? apart from bicycles

what i find mind-blowing is that airplanes consume approximately the same amount of energy as cars and trains. I mean i can easily see cars and trains being on the same level, but i always thought that airplanes consumed like an order of magnitude more fuel than cars. considering how everybody keeps saying that “airplanes consume so much fuel” and such. crazy.

and also boats are less efficient than i thought? boats consume 16 L/100 km while cars, trains and airplanes consume 6 L/100 km?

  • f314@lemmy.worldEnglish
    72·
    2 days ago

    For modes using electricity, losses during generation and distribution are included.

    They should do this for the fossil fuel modes as well and see what that does to the numbers!

    • quick_snail@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      They should also add the cost of harm done to the environment. Then it would be close to infinitely.

    • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      13 hours ago

      Yeah for the diesel/petrol/gasoline ones they’ve excluded energy wastage at the extraction point (eg if they have a flare), moving the oil to the oil refinery (from wherever in the world it came from), during the refining process (definitely a lot of energy used there), transporting the end product to wherever the filling station is, and finally pumping it into the vehicle.

      But they included all the comparable costs for electricity. They wanted fossil fuels to look as good as possible. I’m extremely skeptical about data that suggests air travel is efficient when people have been talking for years about how wasteful and environmentally damaging it is.

      • klankin@piefed.caEnglish
        12·
        1 day ago

        Distribution throughout the vehicle would be laughibly trivial, and calling using batteries ‘generation’ is weird, but they are still like 99% efficient.

        Probably means the efficiency loss burning gas (in power plants much more efficient than cars) is counted for electric vehicles, but ignored for gas vehicles through some crazy mental gymnastics.

        Its also a US study published in 2018, so this is an expected bias.