Let’s see whether it is better to a) plant corn (or some other biomass crop) and turn it into liquid fuel, then use that to operate a moderately efficient internal combustion engine (ice) vehicle, or b) plant the same amount of biomass, burn it to create electricity, then use that electricity to operate a battery electric vehicle. (guess up front which turns out to be better.) here are some facts to use. you can get about 70 gj worth of ethanol per hectare of corn (about 9000 kgcorn/hectare). biomass has an energy content of about 18 mj/kg. biomass power plants are about 40% efficient. a decently efficient car gets 30 mpg of gasoline, which is equivalent to about 22mpg of ethanol (less energy density). a decent battery electric vehicle can drive 4.5 miles/kwh of input electricity. gasoline has an energy density of 34 mj/liter; ethanol has an energy density of 24 mj/liter. a good way to put everything on the same basis is to make the comparison of how many kilometers could you drive in each case using biomass from one hectare of land?