Haqve we reached "peak engine"?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by jcommin

Necessity is the mother of invention and as we drive to reduce gas consumption, emissions and make cars safer, you can only get so much from weight reduction and engine performance. Admittedly, there have been great strides in engine design and fuel economy but there are limits. We are at the beginning of that.

That's basically what the article said and I agree. Achieving improvements in economy and reliability by switching to electricity is going to be easier than squeezing more out of IC engines. I don't interpret that as meaning ICE will disappear completely. I expect in a couple of decades they will still constitute half of the vehicles on the road.

[GH85Carrera]

It will be interesting to see if we there is much more efficiency to be squeezed out of ICE engines. Only time will tell.

I suspect petroleum based engines will be a major source of transportation for many years to come. On my recent 5,000+ mile trip across the country I saw the sheer number of trucks and huge numbers of cars on the road.

No way in hell can the USA electrical grid support making even 1/2 of the cars and trucks electrical. Long haul truckers will not be going electrical for many long decades if ever.

[scottmandue]

I don't see this as an either or...

The ICE will be with us for a very, very, long time... I also like the idea of gas turbine technology improving.

However electrics and hybrids have their place, we have a charging station at work so a plug in hybrid makes sense for my next purchase as a commuter.

I just bought a Nissan Versa that get a solid 30mpg city+highway if we want to go long distance.

I also see me getting a pre 1970 car to tinker on when I retire.

I could google electric/hybrid sales numbers but I'm too lazy... but I can tell you I see more of them on the road every day... they also are not going away.

We also have some hydrogen stations popping up (HINDENBURG!!!) I wonder how that works in a ICE?

[rusnak]

My gut feeling is that hybrids will be the way of the future for passenger cars. But the real issue is the sheer numbers of them, not what they are burning or not. Look at the rate the population is expanding. That is the root of it all.

Commercial vehicles? Either diesel or nuclear. You simply can't make and store enough electricity to move 45,000 of freight cross country on roads by using electric power on pnematic tires on public roads.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Actually, most asteroids are rock.

True but some of them have valuable rare earth metals.

Of course the problem is actually doing this. Can you imagine how expensive it would be?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining

[red-beard]

See my other post. ONE asteroid can supply us with 5 million years of Iron production. I suspect it will be used to make ships for the stars.