Electric scooters are twice as efficient as conventional scooters.
These calculations prove that electric scooters are twice as efficient as conventional scooters, even when taking into account the production of electricity for charging the batteries. To travel one kilometer, an electric scooter spends 122 Wh, and a conventional scooter spends 286 Wh of electricity.
Petrol scooter:
- Petrol has a calorific value of 9.5 kWh)/liter
- The fully considered well-to-wheel efficiency of a petrol powered scooter is equal to the energy content of petrol (9.5kWh) minus the refinement & transportation losses (about 33% in India), multiplied by the km per liter.
- So a regular petrol scooter giving 50 km/liter has an efficiency of 1/(9.5kWh divided by (100% minus 33%)) x 50 km/l = 0.97 km/277 Wh
In other words, to travel a distance of 1 km, a petrol scooter must expend 286Wh of energy.
Electric scooter
- After observing data from users of electric bikes like Hero electric, Morello Yamasaki and also getting test data from e-bikes like Ather S340, we find that on an average, an electric scooter in Indian road conditions consumes 33Wh/km
- And the power plant efficiency , conversion and transmission losses in electricity in India are 70% or more.
- So an Indian electric scooter @ 33 Wh/km has an efficiency of 1/(3600 divided by (100% minus 70%)) x 10^6 x (1/33) km/Wh = 2.52 km/MJ.
- We then multiply this by the “The full cycle charge efficiency of the electric bike”. Let us take this factor as 90% for ebikes.
- Then the final efficiency is 2.52 x 90% = 2.26 km/277 Wh
In other words, to travel a distance of 1 km, an electric scooter must expend 122 Wh of energy.
Conclusion: An electric scooter is more than twice as efficient as an equivalent petrol scooter.