While EVs dominate efficiency, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain unmatched in energy density, thermal mastery, and mechanical artistry. Discover why ICE still outperforms EVs where physics matters most.
While EVs dominate efficiency, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain unmatched in energy density, thermal mastery, and mechanical artistry. Discover why ICE still outperforms EVs where physics matters most.
Too bad that’s exactly what this article is, with garbage takes and poor justification under a thin veil of ‘science’ that they don’t actually understand.
No shit internal combustion engines are more ‘advanced’, we’ve been working on improving ICE for over a century. In contrast, EV powertrains are a nascent technology (ignoring the very early electric vehicles we saw in the beginning days of automobiles which are not really comparable to modern EV tech) that have already improved rapidly over the last decade.
They’re also correct that gasoline is more energy dense than current battery technology, but this again discounts that the field is rapidly expanding the energy density, storage efficiency, and charging speed of batteries, as well as the fact that the relatively unoptimised EV powertrains are already significantly more efficient.
The author also confuses complexity as a justification for retaining ICE. The relative simplicity of EV powertrains is a good thing, it doesn’t need to operate under the intense mechanical and thermal conditions of a combustion engine. I really don’t understand how the author can look at the insane complexity of ICE technology and see that as a win. The simplicity of EVs also means that the maintenance burden is significantly lower on consumers, the supply chain for production and operation is shorter and more resilient, and in terms of carbon emissions, we get a one-time fee during production (that are largely recyclable too) instead of ongoing emissions over the course of each vehicle’s lifetime.
What a bunch of copium.