Petro-fueled airplanes also have the advantage that they can be flown lighter for short trips, trading off either performance and/or cabin load for fuel load. They also land shorter (by virtue of being lighter) at the end of typical flights.

Battery airplanes that carry the full weight of the batteries all the time have worst-case takeoff, climb, and landing performance on all flights.

It's easy to notice even 100 pounds difference in loading on light airplanes. That's a little under 17 gallons of avgas or about 90 minutes' fuel burn for a typical trainer.

If I want to take 2 extra 175# adults on a local flight, I can just leave off 60 gallons of fuel and have the same performance for a short flight.