The fallacy of your thinking is that it would be possible to increase ICE efficiency by 3-4x to create typical ICE cars that could achieve 100 MPG (up from 25-30 MPG for a typical car today). There are physics involved. ICE engines experience small increases in efficiency with time because they are approaching the limits of what can be obtained. Sophisticated engine control systems have been used for years. The typical ICE vehicles are about 20% efficient and the remaining 80% of the fuel's energy is wasted as heat and other inefficiencies in the car systems such as the need to run a cooling system. The pressure to meet CAFE standards is immense and all automakers work like hell to obtain ever decreasing increases in efficiency. Why do you think 0W-16 oils are now being used? While there are some novel ICE designs out there with higher efficiencies, I don't see a lot of interest in automakers adopting them. Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines but VW put a stain on that technology, which was never very popular to begin with in the US. Other changes to cars such as advanced materials to reduce overall vehicle weight, and therefore increase efficiency, are certainly possible but they are also applicable to EVs and are typically expensive. Electric motors are very efficient, electric power plants utilize fuels much more efficiently than an ICE engine in a car is capable of doing (new generation of natural gas power plants are up to 60% efficient but older plants are more like 40% efficient), high voltage power lines transmit power with very high efficiency, and charging systems in EVs have small inefficiencies. Essentially, it is more efficient to burn fossil fuels in a large power plant and power EVs than burn them in large numbers of ICE engines. The difference is about 2-3x.
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Originally Posted by BrianL99
Because the government is investing billions into advancing electric technology for automobiles and zero for ICE vehicles. Like everyone else, the auto manufacturers have to go where the money is.
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