The average internal combustion engine (ICE)-propelled automobile is roughly 10-20% efficient on average at converting the energy in gasoline into forward motion. The remainder of the energy is dissipated into heat or ejected and not fully burned. This means that 80-90% of the fuel is wasted. If you consider an analogy where a person filling the gas tank pumped 1-2 gal into the tank, then pumped 8-9 gal onto the ground, you begin to understand just how much fuel your automobile can waste. This may startle those who might think of their vehicle as clean burning and energy efficient; but, as we will see, the numbers actually get much worse.
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