Has the internal combustion engine peaked?

[gregoron]

As quoted from Elon Musk in a Gizmodo interview on "Dieselgate" linked below:

“What Volkswagen is really showing is that we’ve reached the limit of what’s possible with diesel and gasoline. The time has come to move to a new generation of technology.”

http://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-dieselgate-proves-its-time-to-go-electric-1733163688

With ever increasing pressure for stricter emissions worldwide, have ICE's reached its peak?

Could hybrids still work, or are we basically looking at all electric cars in the near future?

 

[Dyusik]

Vw peaked out the ic? Lol. R34 and R35 nismos would beg to differ. Heck an old R34 (properly boosted) eats the Veyron. Sounds like someone is trying to promote something new. Nothing more.

 

[Merkava_4]

I don't see what else is left do do. We got OBD-II, direct fuel injection, variable valve timing, and twin turbos. What else can the manufacturers do to make them burn cleaner ?

 

[Andy636]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I don't see what else is left do do. We got OBD-II, direct fuel injection, variable valve timing, and twin turbos. What else can the manufacturers do to make them burn cleaner ?


Simple answer...if you can't make them burn cleaner then find a way to filter the NOx and CO.

Elon Musk looks like a buffoon with his comments...not all of us measly mortals can spend 80K's on a Tesla car that will take you to the grocery store and back, and that if you want to take a cross country trip you have to plan ahead more than a full military operation so you won't get stranded on the side of the road.

The only viable alternative to what we have right now is Hydrogen, but that sucker makes it a pain in the bum to store and a nightmare in case of a severe crash and open flames.

 

[Merkava_4]

And that leaves us with compressed natural gas. Burns cleaner than gasoline or diesel ever could.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Dyusik
Sounds like someone is trying to promote something new. Nothing more.

Right. It's not like he's trying to sell anything.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Andy636
The only viable alternative to what we have right now is Hydrogen, but that sucker makes it a pain in the bum to store and a nightmare in case of a severe crash and open flames.


I thought all our hydrogen mines were depleted ???

 

[Andy636]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
And that leaves us with compressed natural gas. Burns cleaner than gasoline or diesel ever could.


80% of the taxis over here run on LPG and when I ask a bunch of them if there is any benefit in running that setup they all said the same thing: that is only beneficial in city stop and go traffic from an economical point of view and engine power output.

 

[Andy636]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Andy636
The only viable alternative to what we have right now is Hydrogen, but that sucker makes it a pain in the bum to store and a nightmare in case of a severe crash and open flames.


I thought all our hydrogen mines were depleted ???


Not sure if that is just Ozzy humor or you are just trolling...

 

[Shannow]

I'm just wondering where the hydrogen can come from...and certainly not to be burned.

 

[3800Series]

Originally Posted By: Andy636
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Andy636
The only viable alternative to what we have right now is Hydrogen, but that sucker makes it a pain in the bum to store and a nightmare in case of a severe crash and open flames.


I thought all our hydrogen mines were depleted ???


Not sure if that is just Ozzy humor or you are just trolling...


We are running out of hydrogen.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Dyusik
Sounds like someone is trying to promote something new. Nothing more.

Right. It's not like he's trying to sell anything.

Its not like he is peddling electric cars or something.

 

[CourierDriver]

On page 10, NY Times, there is something interesting.

 

[whip]

I don't think he's wrong. He's certainly not a buffoon. I don't see a ton of improvements for the ICE. Reliability for the most part is a non factor. Most engines will last 500,000 miles. What improvements will we see for improved efficiency? In the 90's, small cars got 30-40 MPG. Have we dramatically improved since then?

 

[Kestas]

He is still too early in this game. With all the talk about electric cars, gasoline Is still the cheapest way to go. Gas will have to hit around $7 per gallon - and stay there - before alternate energies become more viable. OPEC knows this, and that is why they are keeping the price of oil just low enough to prevent these new technologies from taking a toehold.

 

[A_Harman]

Small cars aren't as small as they used to be. The Civic has gained ~600 pounds since the mid-80's. Government safety standards have forced upsizing and increases in mass to achieve crash performance. Cars now have bigger "footprints", and this is all baked into the regulations. Engines are more efficient now than they were 20 years ago, but the increase in efficiency has gotten lost because smaller engines are dragging around larger and heavier cars. The government has a full-scale war mounted against the internal combustion engine, and they're going to keep ratcheting down the emissions standards and ratcheting up the mileage standards until automakers have no alternative but to build the electric cars that the government wants them to. This will be too bad for everybody, because nobody will buy electric cars, and the automakers will go bankrupt, and everybody will be forced to drive their old IC cars because no good new ones will be made.

Musk has a failing electric car business to prop up, so he'll say that kind of thing. If it wasn't for mainstream OEM's paying him emissions credits (extortion payments mandated by the government), Tesla would have gone belly-up years ago. His electric car business is running at a loss, but carbon credits are pure profit for him. Tesla is the overhyped prostitute of Wall Street.

The internal combustion engine has many fresh avenues of development underway. I'm working on a couple of them personally every day, and hear about much more all the time. The big problem is integrating all the ideas so the engines work as the customer expects at a price he can afford.

 

[Burt]

Originally Posted By: gregoron

Could hybrids still work, or are we basically looking at all electric cars in the near future?


Sure let's pretend that electricity comes from renewables on the margin. Can't believe that people are so silly to believe that it doesn't have an exhaust pipe, it doesn't pollute.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

HCCI is still on the horizon ...

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
I'm just wondering where the hydrogen can come from...and certainly not to be burned.


China will have factories full of kids splitting H2O molecules.

 

[RedOakRanch]

I think we are near a peak in automotive power due to environmental concerns. We can always make more power but society as a whole is less interested in cars these days then in the past. We are already over the hump on long oci's due to direct injection, low zinc, low phos, and low ash requirements. But we can still buy 700hp cars right off the showroom today so the world will survive the downward trend in power just fine.