No, that isn't how it works at all. You're just measuring it a different point. Power plants have similar thermal efficiency that is compounded by the losses in transmission & charging the battery.
That's exactly how it works. Power plants are not even using the same cycle, it's brayton vs carnot. And power plants have a much higher efficiency overall, often two or more times higher than ICE engines.
Even if the grid were entirely fueled by coal, 31% less energy would be needed to charge EVs than to fuel gasoline cars. If EVs were charged by natural gas, the total energy demand for highway transportation would fall by nearly half. Add in hydropower or other renewables, and the result gets even better, saving up to three-fourths of the energy currently used by gasoline-powered vehicles.
Untrue. Power plants can be 50-60% efficient (and up to 90% if the waste heat is used for district heating). Meanwhile car ICEs are at best 25-30% efficient (slightly more for diesels). Even with transmission losses of 4-6% and electric car charging/discharging losses of 10-20% the EV comes out ahead even when fired with fossil fuels and saddled with 500 pounds of extra weight.
Can you provide numbers for each of those? ICE thermal efficiency vs Combined Cycle Gas Turbine efficiency, transmission losses per 100 km and expected total, battery roundtrip efficiency, electric motor efficiency?
No, because it's irrelevant. Talking about "electric motor efficiency" is as pointless as talking about the efficiency of the ring and pinion in the axle of vehicle. It isn't where energy is lost.
The total system efficiency is what matters. As other posters mentioned, even diesels beat the efficiency of an EV when you measure well to wheel:
