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Unlike conventionally fueled vehicles, electric vehicles experience a loss of energy during "refueling," with an energy loss of about 16% from the wall power to the battery during charging. However, electric vehicles are otherwise highly efficient delivering 60%-65% of the energy from the wall power to the road even before energy is reclaimed through regenerative braking. When energy gains from regenerative braking are included, the amount of energy used for traveling down the road can rise to more than 80% in the EPA-combined city and highway driving cycle.

Energy requirements for combined city/highway driving of electric vehicles.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Fuel Economy Guide website.

Fact #1045 Dataset

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