Diesel engine-charged Tesla Model S covers 3500 miles with 76 gallons of fuel

[Redaktion]

Relocating the 3.0L turbo diesel engine's cooling radiator to the front of the Tesla was key for managing the long trip with the electric car.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Diesel-engine-charged-Tesla-Model-S-covers-3500-miles-with-76-gallons-of-fuel.858061.0.html

[Scott]

I drove a Peugeot 5008 with a 1.3L turbo diesel and averaged 60 mpg. And that was around Scotland. This, doesn't seem impressive at all.  46 mpg? And that's saying that the battery was dead and you didn't get 200 of that from a wall.

[Rb]

Utterly stupid and pointless.
Thanks.

[Zemiak]

I drove a Peugeot 5008 with a 1.3L turbo diesel and averaged 60 mpg. And that was around Scotland. This, doesn't seem impressive at all.  46 mpg? And that's saying that the battery was dead and you didn't get 200 of that from a wall.

I drive a 2011 BMW 330D and also average 60+mpg, but this is a much more impressive car with a six cylinder 250hp engine.

[KG]

That is terrible economy for a diesel OR an electric. Let alone all the money spent on the conversion. I drove a VW TDI cross country (also methanol injected) on less than 2 full tanks of fuel which I believe were 16 gallons each. Blew through about 10 gallons of methanol so you do the math. This was in a modern dieselgate generation Jetta. So what... 20k or so for the car and 500 for the methanol injection.  AND..  YOU DONT HAVE TO LISTEN TO A CONSTANT DUTY DIESEL RUNNING RIGHT BEHIND THE DRIVERS SEAT!!!! Just do electric OR just do diesel. This is a terrible example of a waste-ed hybrid. 

[Chucky]

Come on, you're comparing the mpg on econo boxes to something that would blow your doors off. Maybe they weren't driving the Tesla hard, but 46+ mpg on a car with what 500+ hp ain't that bad. I'm sure they could do better, they said it was inefficient, but for they amount of power on tap that's not bad.

[David Ball]

Could have just bought a Toyota crown hybrid and got the same mpg and traveled in comfort,style and no stinky, diesel motor in the trunk that has to run all night to charge battery. Cheaper to plug in and charge. Defeats the purpose of electric cars.

[Colin Q Bang]

Not chagrin though. Not them. If anyone would be chagrined it'd be the operators of that Tesla-stein

[Jacques Miele]

This is gross af

[Sherlock Holmes]

Is everyone just going to accept this guys claim that he averages 60mpg in his 2011 330D?

[Eard]

My 328d wagon does low 40s on a road trip, doesn't stink, recharges in 5 minutes at any gas station, is better built and more comfortable than any Tesla and doesn't brand me as a musk puppet.

[Solandri]

For those saying this is stupid, this is pretty much how all EVs currently operate. The EPA mileage ratings (MPGe) for EVs calculates mileage starting with kWh in the battery. That is, it isn't a measure of energy efficiency from source to wheels on the ground. It ignores electricity generating losses, transmission losses, and battery charging losses. (This makes sense since how your electricity is generated depends on where you live. If you based MPGe on the national average, then you'd be overstating it for EV owners in areas where electricity has high losses (coal), understating it where electricity has low losses (e.g. hydro). So starting with kWh in the battery is really the only way you can come up with a MPGe figure which is correct throughout the country.)

So how much are these losses? Here's a chart of U.S. energy generation and consumption. [Edit: site won't let me post a link since this is a new account. Just search for "u.s. energy consumption by source and sector 2022".] Note the section on the electrical power sector in the bottom middle. Note that it says 65% losses. It's actually not quite this bad. The chart is used as a measure of electricity generating capacity, so to equalize renewables with fossil fuels it assigns renewables equivalent losses. i.e. If you generated 1 kWh of electricity using solar, the chart would say solar actually generated (1 kWh / 0.35) = 2.86 kWh, so that the solar distributed to end-use (after removing the 65% losses) is 1 kWh. Correcting for this, and you get that our electrical grid is about 46% efficient. For every 100 kWh of energy in the source fuel (oil, coal, gas, nuclear heat, renewable), about 46% of it becomes electricity delivered. That accounts for generating losses and transmission losses (which are about 5% if you're curious).

Charging losses fortunately have been measured by numerous Tesla owners. I've seen figures between 75% to 90% efficient. I'd say the average is about 85% efficient. i.e. To put 85 kWh into the Tesla's battery pack, you need to draw 100 kWh from the grid.

So the EPA rates the Tesla S at 120 MPGe. Multiply that by the efficiency of the electrical grid (46%) and charging efficiency (85%), and you get a real MPGe (measured as energy from the source to energy delivered to the wheels) of 46.92 MPGe if you charged it via power outlets. Barely better than the 45.69 MPG they got with a diesel generator on board.

Note that if the diesel generator (which suffered 85% losses charging the battery) had been powering the Tesla directly, it would've gotten 45.69 MPG / 0.85 = 53.75 MPG. Beating out the energy efficiency of the Tesla charged from the grid. (That's not really fair though since the peak efficiency power band of an ICE is rather narrow. You'd fall below that MPG every time you deviated from that peak, e.g. accelerating from a stop. The generator had a much easier time since it could run continuously at the efficiency peak.)

EVs are nice as an endgame tech and to reduce tailpipe emissions (though the emissions end up coming out of power plant smokestacks instead). But in terms of energy efficiency, they're rather pointless until we shift the majority of our electricity generation away from fossil fuels.

[Solandri]

Is everyone just going to accept this guys claim that he averages 60mpg in his 2011 330D?

I'm guessing he's in the UK. The UK uses Imperial gallons, which are bigger than U.S. gallons. So their MPG is a bit higher than U.S. MPG. 60 MPG in the UK would be equivalent to 50 MPG in the U.S.

Most other countries don't have as strict emissions limits as the U.S., which also costs U.S. vehicles some MPG. (In fact emissions delete mods seems to be rather popular among some owners wishing to improve performance and mileage.) The EPA rates the 2011 BMW 330D as 35 MPG on the highway. So without an emissions package, I wouldn't be surprised to see that go up to 45+ MPG. Close to his claimed 50 U.S. MPG (assuming he's in the UK).

[autotragic]

How did you manage to fit a 300ltr + fuel tank to a Tesla?

[Anthony]

This is exaple of big inefficient use of fuel/energy.

I drive 1.6 diesel engine that consume 3 liters/100km (78 MPG) on flat ground, highway speed of 100km/h (62 miles per hour).

That's efficient use of energy.

Why no one is realizing that we just need diesel engine with mile hybrid add-ons. And to wait for better more powerful and cheap batteries to be invented.

And then we can all swich to full electric transportation.