Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

How much imported oil will EVs really displace?

By Paul Dvorak | March 1, 2018

A recent tweet pooh-poohed the transition from fossil fueled cars to EVs because the author claimed, even a million of them would only displace 20,000 barrels of imported oil. That figure did not pass the smell test. Let’s look closer.

Google says a barrel of imported Brent Crude costs about $66, at this writing, and a refinery can produce 20 gallons of gasoline from it. The rest of the barrel produces other hydrocarbon products. Here we are only concerned with cars and gasoline.

The bell curve is one way to look at a population, in this case, of drivers. Our discussion focuses on the right side of the curve, where drivers drive the most.

What’s more, let’s run this experiment in California where many people frequently commute long distances. Although reports say an average car gets 23.6 mpg and the average commute is about 28.9 minutes, let’s work on the right side of the bell curve, where commuters consume at least two gallons each day, not an unreal assumption. If a million of those drivers were to switch to EVs (California has 30 million registered vehicles) they would not burn:

Fsaved  = 1,000,000 cars x 2 gal/car/day
Fsaved  = 2,000,000 gallons/day

To produce those 2 million gallons of gasoline requires importing and refining:

Importbarrels  = 2,000,000 gal / 20 gal/barrel
Importbarrels  = 100,000 barrels of crude oil

So, our twitter cynic is wrong by a factor of five for long-distance commuters. But let’s not stop here. How many dollars will a million EVs keep from being exported? Online sources say the U.S. imports only 25% of its crude oil, about 10.1 million barrels/day. Quite reasonably, that would be the first to go if demand drops.

EVs like Chevy’s Bolt will boost economies when they are recharged by renewable power.

Consider:

Cday = 100,000 barrels x $66/barrel
= $6,600,000/day

or

Cyear = $6,600,000/day x 365 day/year
= $2,409,000,000/year

So, ahem, $2.4 billion each year not spent on imported oil (sent out of the country) becomes a significant addition to the U.S. economy, and that figure is for every million EVs. Google says there are about 263 million cars in the U.S. so the upside to the transition is enormous. As they say, do the math.

The answer is clear as day: The future is electric and it’s powered by wind.

— Paul Dvorak

 


Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tagged With: Windpower Engineering
 

About The Author

Paul Dvorak

Related Articles Read More >

DTE Energy to buy three new Michigan wind farms
Connecticut seeking input on draft solicitation for offshore wind
Maine establishes three new renewable energy laws
US Wind applauds extension of offshore wind tax credit

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight: Looking back at a year of Thrive with ZF Wind Power
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Browse the most current issue of Windpower Engineering & Development and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading wind power engineering magazine today.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe