The diesel engine has the highest efficiency of any internal combustion engine, of up to 43 percent, but this is way less than the average electric motor.
Diesels, just like any internal combustion engine, waste a lot of energy that’s simply released as heat. The aforementioned percentage is considered good for something that burns fuel, especially if you compare it to the energy efficiency of a gasoline engine, rated at around 30 percent.
Electric motors do a much better job of not wasting energy by converting it into heat. They are rated at about 85 percent efficiency, or, in other words, they are able to transfer 85 percent of the electricity they receive into mechanical energy.
This is common knowledge and one of the reasons why electric cars are making more and more sense for both automakers and buyers alike. And if you needed a visual representation of how much energy is wasted by a standard diesel car versus a pure EV, well, check out this video by Fully Charged.
Parts of it are filmed with a FLIR thermal camera and it makes what we already knew about the energy efficiency of these two types of power plants plainly obvious - the oil burner is considerably hotter than the EV, glowing bright orange.
The EV, on the other hand, is far cooler with far fewer parts that actually heat up. The battery pack gives off some heat, as do some of the cables and controllers, but it’s noticeably cooler than the diesel. It’s by no means unexpected, but a way to visualize it helps with understanding how exactly it all works.
The video isn’t groundbreaking and it only serves to highlight the obvious differences between these two types of motor. Do keep in mind, though, that this video isn’t a very scientific one, as you might be led to believe by its title, and it really doesn’t go as deep into the matter as you might expect.
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