Quickly pronounced sentences are poison for a reasonable technical discussion. One such comment should be briefly singled out here: The significantly higher weight of a purely electric car is therefore not significant compared to the consumption of a combustion engine, because it would be recovered through recuperation. In addition, cooling air flows through the engine room of a combustion engine, which also causes losses.

The fact that the losses in aerodynamics are significant under completely different circumstances than those due to high weight is not taken into account at all here. Surprisingly, the consumption of an electric car increases more at higher speeds than a vehicle with a combustion engine.

No, they will never become completely the same. Just take the VW Golf as a basis. Under good conditions, the ID.3 consumes around 20 kWh at 120 km/h and around 5 liters/100 km as a diesel. Both are values from the on- board computer. If the diesel consumes 5.5 liters, we add the charging losses to the ID.3. All in all, of course, the calculation works in favor of the electric car, because 20 kWh corresponds to about 2 liters of diesel in terms of calorific value.

The electric motor is thus supplied with energy that is much easier to convert into motion. On the other hand, the energy of the combustion engine is packed much more densely. In this comparison, a 50 liter tank would correspond to a 500 kWh battery weighing around 4 tons. If we calculate the weight of the tank generously at 50 kg, then the electric car drags with itself around 80 times as much tank weight with the same range. Of course, it saves some of it on the engine and a lot on the clutch, transmission and, for example, the exhaust system.

The electric car also needs a certain amount of flow, because hardly any of them are only cooled with air. Liquid cooling seems to be extremely important, especially when charging, in order to guarantee a high initial value and, in particular, a certain stability of the charging performance. By the way, do you know why the consumption specified by the manufacturer multiplied by the range often results in a higher battery capacity than the existing one? Because the charging losses are often included here. This leads to the paradoxical case that the WLTP value, which is already scheduled much too low, should actually be even lower.

What other advantages are constantly brought up for the electric car? Ah yes, the recuperation. Quite incomprehensible, because one acts as if recuperation is only possible with electric cars. Do you know that there are even kits to retrofit something like this to a normal car by replacing the generator and adding an additional control. Don't do it, because such systems are not very effective.

Now let's separate one instance of recuperation, namely that of more or less powerful braking. You can easily understand this. You just need to stop the time doing something like this. Just as a guide, hard braking from 100 km/h to zero takes about 3 seconds. So now you can think about how incredible a lot of energy can be regained in this time. You know what, we just forget that part. Apparently Tesla still hasn't implemented it.

Now we come to the part that justifiably makes fans of electric cars so proud, the long downhill drive. Can the combustion engine hold up here? Only with effort, which has to be asked whether it is worthwhile for flatland residents, for example. One would have to install a battery of at least the size of the expected energy by recovery, or better twice that. In addition, an electric motor on the crankshaft and/or perhaps even better on the turbocharger. Admittedly, not exactly cheap, but comparably effective with recuperation.

So in the mountains, the electric car secures points because no additional effort is required for recuperation there. But how is it in a relatively flat country? There are now not only automatic transmissions, but also electric clutches with a coasting function. The variant with switching off the engine is even more expensive because various ancillary units have to be electrified here. But anyone who is confronted with such a system for the first time will notice how many places in normal road traffic coasting is possible.

However, if you shy away from all these additional expenses and still want to do something for consumption, respectively the environment, recuperation is a thorn in your side anyway. Of course, driving with just one pedal is comfortable, but is it always consumption-friendly? Probably not, as a driving experience shows, in which you take out the gear almost every time you take your foot off the gas pedal. Admittedly, the engine keeps running, but at a rate of sometimes well under a liter per hour.

No, once you've practiced it, you won't notice it anymore. After a while, you are no longer aware of the fact that you should not stubbornly stick to this driving style without frequently looking in the rear-view mirror. You're more likely to notice how often people brake unnecessarily in normal traffic, even though the pace is already slow enough. And if you then take a closer look at your consumption, especially in city traffic, you will get a feeling for the importance of recuperation and how much of it can be achieved with a normal combustion engine.