Exactly this.
A modern sedan might get 40 miles to the gallon, but only has a tank of maybe 13 gallons (for a range of 500 miles / 800km).
Meanwhile the bus gets "only" 6 mpg but has a 200-gallon tank to compensate.
A modern sedan might get 40 miles to the gallon, but only has a tank of maybe 13 gallons (for a range of 500 miles / 800km).
Meanwhile the bus gets "only" 6 mpg but has a 200-gallon tank to compensate.
This is part of the reason super long flights aren't as common as might be expected, because it's often significantly cheaper to have a layover, even if the plane could actually do the flight in one go - having to carry the second half fuel for the first half is heavy (and the extreme version of this is the rocket equation).
Comparison to an airplane - where weight is basically everything - is pretty useless here.