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Originally Posted by glend
I was just reading that Amazon has ordered 100,000 electric Rivian vans for its US delivery fleet, nice sales commission on that. Of course if they are charged by coal fired plants over night, not sure if there is a net benefit, other than to the manufacturer's bottom line.
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My understanding is that the answer is 'yes'. The efficiency of coal fired power stations is greater than that of an internal combustion engine, so you get more energy from the power station for a given amount of CO2 production, even after transmission losses. It's a step forward but clearly still inferior to using renewable energy. It's also perhaps as much as a company can do by itself - unless they want to also get into electricity production.
As for charging the vehicles with solar power, perhaps Amazon will have to start doing deliveries at night. That way they also beat the traffic.