<s>[INST] What is the most efficient way to create the power to charge the batteries, to charge the engine in Tesla? [/INST] Sure -- well, first of all it should be said that the efficiency of an electric car -- the electric car by Tesla is so great that if you were to take a gallon of oil and you would put power -- use that oil in an electric power station and take the efficiency of that power station -- subtract the transmission losses of the electric power lines -- subtract the charging losses. And it said how many miles do you get out of that gallon of oil versus refine that gallon of oil into gasoline and run an equivalent sized car, using that gallon of gasoline -- what you'll find is the electric car gives you at least twice as much mileage.
So, that's called the well to wheel efficiency. We do the fully efficiency of a particular mode of transport. What it comes down to -- the reason -- the primary reason for that is that a gasoline engine is typically around 17 or 18 percent efficient.
So, the energy in that gallon of gasoline -- the Basically it's roughly one part emission, four parts heat of the energy in that gallon of gasoline.
But in comparison, the electric motor is a far more efficient device. The energy efficiency of electric motors is on the order of 90 percent. So that even after you take all those charging losses and all those other things into account, just have a fundamentally more efficient engine -- motor in the case of But to answer your original question of what will charge -- we need the energy to charge the batteries for the cars and are we not simply extending the tail pipe to the power switch, so it's a long tailpipe to the power station essentially.
And the answer to that is -- well, first of all, electricity is the universal currency. You can generate electricity in many ways, including renewable ways such as solar power, wind, geothermal -- and in ways which are less damaging to the environment such as nuclear and -- and then even if you would generate energy with hydrocarbons such as coal or oil or natural gas, the energy efficiency of electric transportation is so much greater that you can still be twice as better off than you would otherwise be. </s>