Re: theWatt Podcast 75

Yes, I agree that everything should be triple checked. A lot of people seem to be leery of Amory Lovins. He does have people working for him that have many degrees though.

The numbers actually come from reference 229 in the image that I posted (I guess I should have made the text larger).

Basically, the gist is that the tank-to-wheel efficiency is ~17% (of course there are more efficient cars, but this is an average), but that remaining energy goes towards moving both you and the car. So if the car is, say 1428kg, and you are 70kg, then your weight is 5% of the total weight being moved, which means that 5%*17%=0.8% of the available energy goes to moving you.

Here's a neat image from the DOE showing where energy goes:

I guess we'd have to compare this to other forms of transportation though, like a bus or a train.