while we are far from being powered by "green" grids it cant be denied that electric equipment and transportation HAS to be the future. Its not that its not possible its just not at the clean scale it promises yet. Electric furnaces, construction equipment and heavy duty machinery exists and are all already rapidly in development to make the process of making more electric equipment more clean. And while it can likely never be 100% cleanly made the same argument goes for fossil fuels. The potential of a grid powered by much cleaner forms of energy like hydroelectric, nuclear, solar and wind however is much greater than that of fossil fuels which we have reached a peak thermal efficiency of about 50% for decades.<br>On the other hand electric motors (including the ones that are stuck on the end of large diesel generators) have a efficiency of around 95% which is a massive leap. You could also with some quick math find that the electric grid has a thermal efficiency of roughly 47.5% which is still significantly grater than that of an average petrol powered car which have 25-30% thermal efficiency. Even when taking into account charging efficiency (close to 100% in lithium ion batteries), energy lost to heat in power lines (roughly 10%, depends on range from power source), and the 95% efficiency of the electric motors on cars a EV comes out on top being more fuel efficient.<br>In the end it all come down to how the materials for batteries are mined and fossil fuels are extracted. and I do agree that the current methods of extracting ores are messy. but thought id just show real quick that the myth of EVs being less fuel efficient is just a myth.