Do you have a reference?
Since both electric generators and motors well exceed 99% efficiency at this power level, I don't see how can this be the case.
This says 85-95% efficiency for the motor in an EV: https://matter2energy.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/wells-to-whee...
This says 93% for a brushless DC motor: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/58236/why-doe...
I found a bunch more of similar quality searching for "ev motor efficiency" and similar.
I'm not particularly satisfied with those, so if you have something better, I'd love to see it!
Do you have a reference?
Since both electric generators and motors well exceed 99% efficiency at this power level, I don't see how can this be the case.