Ever wondered what the differences are (including the pros/cons) of the most common car driveline types on the market? Paul Maric compares petrol against diesel, hybrid (including plug-in hybrid) and electric to give you a better idea of how each technology works and the pros/cons of each.
This is part of our explainer series. We have other videos in the series too, you can watch the rest of the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw_MiPgGBLEsQi9gjMfwQSKTjBI0q_wDE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Petrol engine explained: 00:59
Diesel engine explained: 06:07
Hybrid drivetrain explained: 11:11
Full Electric drivetrain explained: 17:21
Final thoughts: 23:10
More BMW content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw
More MINI content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mini
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#petrol #diesel #electric #explained #review
This is part of our explainer series. We have other videos in the series too, you can watch the rest of the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw_MiPgGBLEsQi9gjMfwQSKTjBI0q_wDE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Petrol engine explained: 00:59
Diesel engine explained: 06:07
Hybrid drivetrain explained: 11:11
Full Electric drivetrain explained: 17:21
Final thoughts: 23:10
More BMW content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw
More MINI content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mini
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#petrol #diesel #electric #explained #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So it's time for another explainer video, and we get a lot of questions and comments from you guys asking about the differences between
00:06 petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid, hybrid and electric cars. So I thought we would shoot a video
00:11 explaining the key differences between these technologies, so that if you are
00:15 buying a new car, you can go into it all informed. And to make life a little bit easier,
00:20 I've picked all the cars from the same brand range. They're all BMWs,
00:24 so the terminology and stuff that we're talking about all make sense. Representing petrol,
00:28 we have the BMW 550i. On the diesel front,
00:31 it's the 530d. And then plug-in hybrid and hybrid is going to be the 330e. And finally, our full electric car is the Mini
00:40 Electric. Now, if you are a little impatient and you want to skip ahead to your favorite engine technology,
00:44 you can use the time codes up on the screen there. Or if you're on YouTube,
00:47 you can scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already,
00:50 I would love it if you could subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon as well.
00:54 It's going to tell you every single time we do another one of these explainer videos.
00:58 Okay, let's kick things off with our petrol engine. How good is that? Nice big twin turbo V8.
01:05 So what I'm going to do is I'm going to run through each of these engine technologies.
01:09 I'm going to keep this super high level as well because these engines are all different. Some are direct injections,
01:14 some are not, some are turbocharged, some are supercharged.
01:17 So I'm just going to keep it really high level. If you do want some more detail,
01:20 you can go do a bit more research on the internet.
01:22 But this will give you a key difference between them. Now, this is what they call an internal combustion engine.
01:27 Because there is literally a combustion, an explosion that goes on inside a chamber in there.
01:33 And that's what creates power and torque. And it's the same process between a petrol and a diesel.
01:38 That's why they're called internal combustion engines. Now, how does it all work? So inside here you have a cylinder.
01:43 It's a fixed unit inside the block there. And inside that cylinder is a piston that's connected to a rod.
01:50 The piston travels up and down the cylinder. That all occurs across four strokes.
01:54 That's why this is called a four-stroke engine. And at the top of the cylinder you have intake valves and exhaust valves.
02:01 So the first part of this whole process is the intake stroke. During that process, the piston goes down the cylinder.
02:07 It's a bit like a syringe. It sucks in an air and fuel mixture through the intake valve that fills that combustion chamber.
02:15 Keep in mind though that some engines like this one with direct injection actually squirt fuel directly into the chamber
02:21 as opposed to pre-mixing it as part of the intake process. The next part is the compression stroke.
02:27 That's where the piston goes back up the cylinder and it compresses that air and fuel mixture.
02:32 Just before it reaches top dead center, a spark plug creates a spark inside the combustion chamber.
02:38 And that's what causes an explosion. And that leads to the power stroke.
02:42 It's that explosion that forces the piston to travel rapidly back down the cylinder.
02:47 And the final part of this whole process is the exhaust stroke. That is when the piston goes back up the cylinder
02:53 and the exhaust valve opens to let the exhaust gases out of the car.
02:57 Now how do you create the torque that gets this car moving?
03:01 Well, the intake stroke, the compression stroke and the exhaust stroke all consume energy
03:06 because no energy is being created in that process. Only the power stroke creates energy.
03:10 So when that power stroke happens, it effectively creates an energy inside the engine that is transferred
03:15 through the gearbox, through the driveline and then out to the tires and onto the road.
03:20 So that is that feeling of motion that you get. The push in the back, that is torque
03:24 and that is created each time one of those explosions occurs.
03:27 And RPM, revolutions per minute, if this car is doing 7,000 RPM, you're getting 7,000 revolutions
03:33 of that piston inside the chamber each and every minute.
03:36 So that's been a basic overview of how a petrol internal combustion engine works.
03:40 Let's go for a drive because I want to run you through the pros and cons of this type of power unit.
03:45 So we're on the road now in the M550i. Let's talk about the pros and cons of a petrol engine.
03:51 So this is the most common type of engine out there. Actually, maybe it's a diesel.
03:56 Let me know in the comments section below which one do you think is more, I guess, common out there.
04:00 But with a petrol engine, you're fueling it with gasoline, petrol, and you can find that on virtually
04:06 every street corner and you're never really going to be in a situation where you can't find petrol to fuel your car.
04:12 And that means that this is probably going to be the most convenient form of engine technology for most people.
04:18 In addition to that, most petrol engines are fairly efficient. The new ones, certainly not this one really,
04:23 but most new petrol engines are efficient. That means you can get upwards of 500 kilometres of range per tank of fuel.
04:30 One of the other big benefits of a petrol engine is that they're fairly easy to tune.
04:35 And I've really just wanted to punch this all day.
04:38 They sound bloody awesome as well. So you can strap turbochargers onto your petrol engine, you can put a supercharger on.
04:47 There really are limitless potential in terms of tuning, and it means that it is easy to extract a bit more oomph out of it
04:54 if you do have one of these engines.
04:56 Finally, the last pro is that you can get petrol engine service by virtually anyone,
05:01 because the principles of these engines are virtually identical across manufacturers.
05:05 Yes, you do have some complexity in engines like this, but for the most part, it's technology that's fairly straightforward and convenient.
05:13 And that's going to mean that when you do need to get your car fixed, you can pretty much approach anyone.
05:17 Let's go into the cons though. So you're always going to be at the mercy of fluctuating fuel prices.
05:22 Every now and then you see fuel prices go crazy before public holidays, and you really can't do anything about it
05:28 because you can't produce the fuel yourself, or you can, it's just really hard to do,
05:32 and it means that you're going to have to pay whatever the pump price is.
05:35 The other problem is some vehicles like this one here require premium unleaded fuel,
05:40 and that's going to mean you have to pay extra over the lifetime of the car.
05:43 That's never going to become any cheaper because you're always paying a premium to get that better fuel through your high-performance engine.
05:50 And the final con is there are a lot of moving parts under the bonnet there.
05:54 So unlike an EV, which has very few moving parts, there's always something that's going to break eventually in your internal combustion car,
06:02 and depending on how complex it is, that means it can be pretty expensive to fix.
06:07 Righto, let's talk diesel. There you go. The engine looks slightly different just because it's a six-cylinder instead of an eight.
06:13 It's also inline instead of in a V formation.
06:16 Now a diesel engine has similar principles, so it's still internal combustion.
06:20 You still have a fixed cylinder with a piston that moves up and down.
06:23 But one of the key differences is a diesel engine doesn't use a spark plug at all.
06:27 It's still a four-stroke process, so during the intake stroke, it's only drawing air into the combustion chamber, no fuel at all.
06:34 And then during the compression process, it compresses that air a whole lot more than a petrol engine does.
06:39 So a petrol engine compresses the air to around a tenth of its size, whereas a diesel engine will go to around a 25th of its size.
06:46 So you can picture there that you're getting a whole bunch of that air crammed into a tighter space.
06:51 Now the result of that is that the air is effectively superheated.
06:55 You get to around 500 degrees inside that combustion chamber, and you don't need a spark because all that happens is atomized fuel is sprayed into there once it's compressed,
07:05 and that causes an explosion, and that explosion causes your power stroke,
07:09 and then it follows the same process as a petrol engine in terms of exhaust and then sending that torque to the wheels.
07:15 Now the big difference here is that you have a greater energy content in diesel, and the power stroke is longer.
07:22 So the actual chamber itself is longer, so when you do get that explosion, there's more energy content, and it creates more power as that piston goes down.
07:30 And that's why you're getting more torque out of a diesel engine at less revolutions, because you're getting more energy content as part of that explosion.
07:37 So that is the key difference between a diesel engine and a petrol engine.
07:41 Let's hit the road because there are characteristic differences between the way a petrol and a diesel engine drives.
07:47 So we are now in the 530d. Let's talk about the pros of diesel vehicles.
07:55 Now one of the biggest you're going to notice is torque.
07:58 So what I mentioned before that the stroke is longer inside a diesel engine, that means you're getting more torque at less RPM.
08:06 And that's useful for things like overtaking and for towing, because torque is that feeling that you get when you accelerate, the push in the back.
08:13 And with a vehicle like this, when it comes to overtaking, you can just pound the throttle and it will just surge ahead.
08:19 Same story with towing, if you've got a long big hill that you need to drive up, this will just keep that consistent momentum.
08:24 And I don't know, when you punch it, it just sort of pins you back in the seat really nicely.
08:29 So diesel engines have refined over time and I think they really are at their peak now, especially with these BMW six-cylinder diesels.
08:37 They're just really nice and smooth and they're not laggy like old diesel engines used to be.
08:41 The other big advantage of diesel over something like petrol is that they're more efficient.
08:45 So that's because diesel is more energy dense than petrol as a fuel.
08:49 And then on top of that, you're using less of it because you're compressing more air for the same amount of work.
08:55 So that means that this is going to always be more efficient than its equivalent petrol counterpart.
09:01 One of the other pros as well is that generally diesels have stronger internals.
09:05 So with that extra stroke and the more explosive explosion that you get inside the combustion chamber, they need stronger internal parts.
09:13 And that means they're going to last longer as well.
09:15 And generally when it comes to a diesel engine, you'll find that yes, it's heavier because you do have stronger components inside.
09:21 But they are going to last longer than a traditional petrol engine.
09:25 And it is worth pointing out as well, one of the other pros is really you can find diesel on any street corner where you'll find petrol.
09:31 So it's just as accessible as a standard petrol pump.
09:35 Righto, let's move over to cons.
09:37 They're generally more expensive.
09:39 So a diesel vehicle is going to cost more than an equivalent petrol car.
09:43 And that is again because of those parts that they need and they are more expensive to make.
09:47 You have to do the calculations yourself in terms of the added cost and how long it'll take you to pay that back.
09:51 But generally if you are holding onto the car for a number of years, you'll earn that back in the fuel savings.
09:55 The other downside is diesels are more expensive to service as well.
10:00 So again with those parts, they cost more to service and generally they are slightly fiddlier.
10:05 So things like high pressure injectors, they are expensive to replace.
10:08 Glow plugs, expensive to replace and also access.
10:11 So keep in mind that you will generally pay more in terms of servicing when it comes to a diesel.
10:17 And on top of that, it's also subject to the same price fluctuations that petrol is.
10:21 Yes, it is a little bit more settled in Australia, but you do still see wild variations in pricing from time to time.
10:27 The final con is diesel particulate filters and also the emissions from a diesel engine.
10:34 The noxious emissions here are caught or meant to be caught by a diesel particulate filter.
10:39 And a diesel particulate filter burns off those particulates that it catches occasionally at high temperatures,
10:45 but that requires the car to be moving.
10:47 Unfortunately, with the advent of dual cab utilities in Australia,
10:50 a lot of people don't drive enough to cleanse their diesel particulate filters.
10:54 And when they clog or break, they can be really expensive to replace.
10:58 So that is one of the big downsides.
11:00 If you only do city driving, it is probably worth giving a diesel a miss
11:04 because it could end up in long-term pain when it comes to fixing broken diesel particulate filters.
11:10 Okay, it is time to talk hybrid technology.
11:13 Now, this uses a mixture of both an internal combustion engine plus also an electric motor with a battery pack.
11:20 So the internal combustion engine works effectively in the exact same way as the M550 we saw earlier.
11:26 This one here is pretty much the exact engine out of the entry-level 320i.
11:31 So you can just plop this into here.
11:33 And what they do is they add an electric motor with a battery pack, and that creates the hybrid components.
11:38 Now, you've got two different types of hybrids.
11:40 You have a closed-circuit hybrid.
11:42 That's something like a Toyota Prius.
11:44 You can't charge that externally.
11:46 The battery is charged every time you slow down,
11:48 or it's charged by a generator that's attached to the internal combustion engine.
11:52 This here is a plug-in hybrid.
11:54 That means you can actually plug this in and charge it.
11:56 So if we come around here, you can see this has a power plug.
12:00 But you'll also be able to tell it's a plug-in hybrid because of these high-voltage cables that run from that port through to the batteries.
12:07 Now, this works very similar to a closed-circuit hybrid, except this has a much bigger battery pack.
12:12 So typically, plug-in hybrids do cater for more driving range on EV alone,
12:17 whereas a closed-circuit hybrid has a very small battery that's used effectively just to get the car moving from a standing start,
12:23 and then once it's moving, the internal combustion engine takes over.
12:27 Whereas this one can travel for longer distances on EV power alone,
12:30 and then you have the backup of the internal combustion engine to keep it going further.
12:34 So that's a super brief overview.
12:36 Let's go for a drive, and I'll run you through the pros and cons of this type of setup.
12:39 Okay, so we're in the 330e.
12:43 This is a plug-in hybrid.
12:45 I thought it'd be easier just to use the one car as opposed to doing a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid.
12:49 We can cover both scenarios with this.
12:51 So what are the pros of a hybrid, or P-HEV as it's also known?
12:55 Well, in this particular example, this has a driving range of about 60 kilometres on a full charge.
13:01 This has under the back seat there a battery that's about 12 kilowatt hours in size,
13:06 and that means that if you drive to work and you're less than 60 kilometres from work,
13:10 you could in theory never really use fuel until you go on a longer trip.
13:14 So you can charge it at home, get to work, charge it again, and away you go.
13:18 You can see down the bottom there we have a little indicator that says we have 6 kilometres of range left on full electric.
13:23 We're in sport mode, but I'll pop it over to hybrid,
13:26 and now the internal combustion engine is off, and it is driving strictly on electricity.
13:31 Now the difference between the way this operates and a regular hybrid
13:35 is that a hybrid will travel less distance because the battery is much smaller on full electric.
13:40 So when I get stuck into this, it kicks the internal combustion engine on as well.
13:44 One of the other pros here is that you get the added boost of the EV component.
13:49 So if I flatten the throttle now, it goes into this e-boost range
13:54 where it'll use the internal combustion engine plus the electric motor
13:58 plus a little bit of extra reserve the electric motor has in it.
14:01 So that means all of your power sources combine and deliver as much oomph as you can possibly get through that driveline.
14:08 The other pro is that even if you completely deplete the battery,
14:12 you still have an internal combustion engine to take you further.
14:15 So if you're going on a long distance drive, you don't really have the range anxiety
14:19 because if you run out of electricity, simply stick a bit of fuel in it and the car just keeps going.
14:24 Now our final pro, you may have seen some of our other videos,
14:27 I always comment on why a hybrid is so efficient,
14:31 and a lot of it comes down to moving it from a standing start,
14:35 and my analogy is like pushing a box, right?
14:38 If you try and push a box on the carpet, it's a little hard to get moving to start with,
14:41 but once it's moving, it's easier to push along.
14:44 Well, I thought I'd demonstrate it and show you exactly what I mean from the outside.
14:48 Okay, so let's put this example into practice.
14:51 So pretend I'm an electric motor and I have energy inside me,
14:55 I have a battery inside, and we've just charged the battery each time we've slowed down.
14:59 I want to give you an idea why hybrids are so efficient.
15:02 So the petrol engine is off, the car's in neutral, I'm going to move it now.
15:06 It takes a lot of effort to move it off the line,
15:09 but once it's moved off the line, the car is far easier to move.
15:13 It's at this point here I'm going to let the petrol engine take over,
15:17 and then the car is going to drive away.
15:19 So there it is there.
15:20 So what happened there was we didn't have to use a drop of fuel to move the car.
15:23 Instead, we used the energy that we saved when we slowed down,
15:27 and that was energy that would have otherwise been wasted in the braking system.
15:30 So instead of wasting it, we plumbed it into the battery, and that gets the car moving.
15:33 Because it's so hard to get the car moving from a standing start,
15:36 you would otherwise have had to use the petrol engine to get it off the line,
15:39 whereas now we just used my electric motor and the battery inside to get the car moving,
15:44 and then the petrol engine took off after that.
15:46 Righto, we're back in the car now. That was hard work.
15:48 Let's talk about the cons, and we'll start with the added weight.
15:51 All of these components weigh around 300 kilos in this particular plug-in hybrid,
15:56 so you're adding extra weight to the equation just so you can run on electricity.
16:00 Now that's fine if you're doing the commute to and from work,
16:03 but the downside is that if you go beyond that 60-kilometre range,
16:07 and you're using your internal combustion engine,
16:09 yes, you still have the benefit of the hybrid savings that I mentioned earlier,
16:13 but you don't get the benefit in terms of the extra weight,
16:15 because you're still lugging around those 300 kilos of electric components,
16:19 which you're really not using because the car's battery is empty.
16:23 So that is something to consider.
16:25 It's not really an efficiency to have all of that there if you're not using it.
16:28 And it's the same inverse if you are just driving to work on electricity to and from.
16:32 You're then lugging the weight of an internal combustion engine with you as well,
16:36 even though you're not using it.
16:37 So, yeah, there are some downsides to having a plug-in hybrid
16:40 and all of the extra components that come with it.
16:42 One of the other cons is servicing.
16:44 So, unlike an electric car which has very few moving parts,
16:47 a plug-in hybrid like this, you still have to service an internal combustion engine
16:51 plus all of your additional servicing for the electric components.
16:54 So, you really are double handling the servicing,
16:57 and that's going to end up costing you more in the long run.
16:59 And the final con is if you are doing long distance driving,
17:03 this probably isn't going to be a suitable vehicle.
17:05 The battery isn't big enough for long distance savings,
17:08 and it really does throw back to that initial point.
17:10 All of that added weight that you're putting in isn't going to help you
17:13 when you do your long distance drive because you're simply lugging around a battery
17:16 and electric components that aren't really being used while you're out on the highway.
17:20 Let's talk EV.
17:22 So, those of you who know me, you know that I have some old inefficient V8 Commodores that I love,
17:27 but I also drive a Tesla, and I love car technology and where we're heading.
17:31 So, I'm excited to tell you a bit more about the EV.
17:33 So, I'm going to get rid of this. This is just a cover.
17:36 Now, how does it all work?
17:37 Well, you generate electricity out there somewhere.
17:40 There's a big debate about whether that's clean or not,
17:42 but the electricity is out there.
17:44 It then comes into the car, and it's stored within the battery pack.
17:48 The battery pack in an EV varies in size.
17:50 Here in the MINI, it's around 30 kilowatt hours,
17:53 and a kilowatt hour is how much energy you can consume over an hour before you run out of that battery.
17:58 So, here in theory, you could do 30 kilowatts for an hour,
18:01 and the battery would be depleted. That's how that system works.
18:04 The battery supplies energy to an electric motor.
18:07 In this case, the electric motor lives on the front axle, and it drives just the front wheels.
18:12 Depending on the electric car, some will have a motor on the front or the back or both,
18:17 and then an electric car also uses a single-speed transmission.
18:20 Unlike an internal combustion car that can use six, seven, eight, nine, ten gears,
18:24 there are some electric cars on the market that have a two-speed transmission,
18:27 such as the Porsche Taycan, but here in this case, it is a single-speed transmission.
18:31 Once you get the energy from the battery using all of these high-voltage cables,
18:35 it then drives an electric motor that allows the car to move.
18:38 And just like a hybrid, this can regenerate energy every single time it slows down,
18:42 and it plums that energy back into the battery system.
18:45 So, let's go for a drive, because I want to run you through the technology here
18:48 and how it compares to the internal combustion cars.
18:51 Now, pros of an electric vehicle. The first and most obvious one is tailpipe emissions.
18:57 You don't have anything coming out of the rear, so in and around the city,
19:01 that's going to be massively beneficial for the health of pedestrians and people just walking by.
19:05 They won't be choking on your diesel or petrol car's emissions,
19:10 and that's going to be a big benefit for the public in general.
19:13 There's no sound, and that's going to sound very strange,
19:16 but it is a pro because if you think about living in the city,
19:19 I once lived sort of on a main road.
19:22 It was so painful to have trams, trucks, buses driving past all the time.
19:27 There was just so much noise.
19:28 With EVs, they don't make any noise while they're moving,
19:31 which means if you do have more of them in and around the city,
19:34 you're probably going to have better sleep than I did for the past three years.
19:38 Arguably, the biggest pro, though, is the maintenance.
19:41 There is barely anything to service on an EV.
19:44 There's very few moving parts.
19:46 Your brakes last three to four times longer than an internal combustion car
19:49 because every time you slow down, like right now,
19:51 it's plumbing energy back into the batteries, and we're not using the brakes at all.
19:56 I only really need to use the brakes if I hit the brake pedal hard,
19:59 so that's going to be a massive bonus in the long run.
20:02 Yes, car companies will still try and extract money out of you for servicing an EV,
20:07 but in theory, there should be very little that needs servicing on an electric vehicle.
20:12 Now, the lucky last pro, and that is acceleration.
20:16 Some of the world's fastest vehicles or quickest vehicles at the moment are electric cars,
20:21 and that is because you have instantaneous torque.
20:23 If I go and punch the throttle now, it pins me back in the seat.
20:27 This front-wheel-drive EV sort of struggles for traction,
20:30 but if you can picture a Tesla or something like that that has a dual-motor setup,
20:34 my Model 3 Performance is an absolute rocket ship.
20:37 So that excites me the most because I love going fast,
20:39 and I think that EVs will eventually win over some car enthusiasts who really want that acceleration
20:45 but want to get rid of their internal combustion cars.
20:48 Let's talk about the cons, and the first one is the price.
20:51 EVs are more expensive to purchase than their equivalent internal combustion counterparts.
20:57 It's just a fact of how much it costs to produce batteries and the components that go into an EV.
21:02 It is more expensive than a traditional internal combustion engine,
21:05 and a lot of the time, without government incentives like here in Australia,
21:08 a lot of people won't take up an EV simply because the leap is too high from an upfront cost point of view.
21:14 While there are zero emissions at the tailpipe,
21:18 a lot of EV fans don't really go on to mention how electricity is actually produced.
21:24 So here in Australia, for example, we still produce a lot of electricity through the form of coal,
21:28 and that is, yes, fine for the cities where you're not emitting out of the tailpipe,
21:32 but you are chugging coal into the atmosphere somewhere else.
21:36 So until you overcome that with green energy, you are really just moving the problem somewhere else.
21:42 Yes, the other side of that argument is that over time, the electricity grid will become greener,
21:47 but at this very point in time, you are really just deferring the problem unless you pay extra for green electricity.
21:53 The other downside to the noise, or the lack of noise, is that pedestrians can't hear you.
21:58 So some EVs are fitted with an external speaker that emits a noise at low speeds,
22:03 so that blind pedestrians will be able to hear you coming, but some don't,
22:07 and longer term that's going to be an issue because you have that sense of a vehicle approaching when you can hear a noise,
22:13 but if you only hear tyre noise from an EV, it's going to be hard to judge how close it actually is to you.
22:18 The final thing here is that EVs may not suit everybody.
22:21 So we love our Tesla because it's got a driving range of 400, 450 kilometres,
22:25 and that's more than enough for my wife and I. It'll get us wherever we need to go,
22:28 and there's a charging network out there for where we live.
22:31 But if you drive hundreds of kilometres each day, an EV at the moment isn't going to be a viable option for those people.
22:38 We are on the cusp of breaking through on battery tech though. That is our limitation at the moment.
22:43 Yes, you can cram more and more batteries into a car, but what you're going to do is make it heavier and less efficient.
22:48 You've got to move all that weight somehow.
22:50 But with solid-state batteries, they're just around the corner, we'll see faster charging, better energy density,
22:56 and also more range because you'll have less batteries or the same weight in batteries but able to travel further distances.
23:02 So it is worth keeping in mind that you look into an EV properly and make sure that it suits your lifestyle before diving in and making a purchase.
23:09 So there is a wrap of our engine technology comparison. Which one is better for you?
23:17 Well, this is going to sound like a bit of a cop-out, but it really does depend on your circumstances.
23:21 So if you don't have off-street parking, an EV may not be the best choice.
23:24 If you're towing, a diesel might be a good choice.
23:26 Or if you just love the sound of a twin-turbo V8, a petrol might be for you.
23:30 It really just does depend on your circumstances.
23:32 For me, for example, it cost me like $5 to charge my Tesla at home, and that's because I have access to off-peak power.
23:38 I charge it on a weekend or overnight.
23:40 So for me, that all makes sense, but for you, it could be something different.
23:43 It is worth keeping in mind as well, with electric cars, batteries degrade over time, just like your phone.
23:48 So you may need to replace them down the track if you do hold onto the car for a little while.
23:52 Now, let me know in the comments section below, do you want explainer videos on any other topics?
23:56 Really keen to get your feedback, so go down there and let us know.
23:59 And did we make any mistakes?
24:01 I know it sometimes happens, but I always try and own up to them.
24:04 So let us know if you spotted any errors in this video as well.
24:07 Now, if you did enjoy this video, I would love it if you could share it with your mates and hit the like button as well.
24:11 We've done a few other explainer videos on four-wheel drive controls, parking technology, headlights, you name it.
24:16 Click up here to have a look at our playlist that has all of the other videos we've shot before.
24:21 And if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon,
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24:27 But until next time, take it easy.