[rco8786]

It’s hard to imagine it not. And also kudos and crazy respect for all the thousands of engineers that poured their work into making combustion engines as efficient and reliable as they are. A true marvel of humanity, and something to be respected even as we leave it behind.

[psd1]

I see your point, but at best you're getting 40% thermal efficiency with IC. It's not great.

[rco8786]

Relative to EVs it’s not. But relative to ICE engines from 50 years ago it’s great. EVs are obviously going to take over ICE, my only point is that we shouldn’t discount all the work and ingenuity that went into ICE engines simply because a disruptive technology came about.

[cbmuser]

No one cares about thermal efficiency. What matters is the economic efficiency.

[AtlasBarfed]

And yet, how much earlier could we have had better solar panels and EVs?

Certainly wind power was viable as soon as fiberglass was invented.

The mass engineering should have also been directed at that which would have saved us a billion tons of carbon.