Question

Volkswagen sells the "Golf" in both gasoline-powered and electric-powered versions. The gasoline Golf gets 37 miles/gallon and the electric e-Golf gets 3.42 miles/kWh. Assume the average person drives 12,000 miles per year.

a) What are the annual emissions in kg CO2 for driving the Golf and e-Golf? For gasoline, assume that it emits 8,165 g CO2 per gallon of gasoline. For electricity, use the table below to determine greenhouse gas emissions.

	The share of Electricity Mix	Emissions factor (g CO2/ kWh)
Natural gas	50 %	400
Coal	30 %	800
Hydro	10%	10
Wind	10%	15

b) If the e-Golf cost $3,000 more than the gasoline Golf, what is the payback time for purchasing the e-Golf instead of the gasoline Golf. Assume the gasoline costs $3/gallon and electricity costs $ 0.10/kWh.

Answer 1

Hi,

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(a)

GASOLINE

We have,

Average person drives the car 12,000 miles per year.

Fuel efficiency of gasoline powered car,  

Amount of Gasoline consumed per year,

Amount of CO₂ that emits per gallon of Gasoline=

Amount of CO₂ that emits per year,

ELECTRICITY

We have,

Average person drives the car 12,000 miles per year.

Fuel efficiency of electric powered car,  

Amount of electricity consumed per year,

Amount of CO₂ that emits per kWh of electricity =

Amount of CO₂ that emits per year from electric car,

(b)

We have,

Average person drives the car 12,000 miles per year.

Fuel efficiency of gasoline powered car,  

Amount of Gasoline consumed per year,

TOTAL ANNUAL FUEL EXPENSE FOR GASOLINE CAR,

ALSO,

Fuel efficiency of electric powered car,  

Amount of electricity consumed per year,

TOTAL ANNUAL FUEL EXPENSE FOR ELECTRIC CAR,

TOTAL BENEFIT IN FUEL EXPENSE FOR A YEAR

PAYBACK TIME FOR PURCHASING A E-GOLF,

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