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by pigboy 5004 days ago
Energy density is a critical issue for aircraft because lift/drag ratios are capped at around 15 to 30. For every 15-30 N of fuel weight, you must supply at least 1 N of additional thrust (which translates to power, once you multiply by speed).

Cars, on the other hand, experience a combination of aerodynamic and powertrain drag and rolling resistance, of which only (mostly?) the rolling resistance depends on mass. The typical coefficient of rolling resistance is about 10x better than the typical L/D ratio for aircraft (if I believe Wikipedia). Hence, road vehicles are 10x less sensitive to energy density than aircraft.

So a statement that electric vehicles won't work is nonsense, without considering how sensitive the different vehicles are to fuel mass.