Fuel Efficiency

For a gas-powered car, the usual way of measuring fuel efficiency is to report miles per gallon, which is abbreviated as “mpg.” This is how far the car can travel on a single gallon of gas. So, the greater the reported mpg value, the more efficient the car is and the less costly it is to operate.

But electric vehicles don’t use gas, so how is the fuel efficiency measured for electric cars? One measure that is used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the kilowatt hours per [latex]100[/latex] miles rating, which is abbreviated as “kWh/[latex]100[/latex] miles.” The kWh/[latex]100[/latex] miles rating is the amount of electricity that is required to travel [latex]100[/latex] miles.