this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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Electric Vehicles
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I don't think you can truly love ICE engines and the engineering that makes them work without realizing that an Electric Vehicle will always win as an everyday beater engine. Hands down. No contest.
ICE engines are cool because of how complex they had to become in order to become even as remotely as reliable as Electric Engines are fundmanetally. Like a Mechanical Clock vs a much more mechanically simple Digital Clock.
The only reason we are even having this discussion in 2026 and it things haven't flattened in favor of Electric Vehicles long ago was batteries used to suck. It is that simple.
Batteties still suck. Just a bit less.
The best electric vehicles are grid tied. We've had them for generations.
If those motherfuckers try to reinvent trains again I'm gonna lose my shit.
It's cheaper to install a hanging electrical wire above a road, close of 4 lanes, and run a bus than to install train tracks.
This is very common in poorer countries. Maybe not as nice as trains, but it's 90% as good and doesn't need petrol.
Internal combustion engine engines?
yeah ok kay?
Just making sure I understood understood.
Yeah, ICE engines are an absolute marvel of engineering, whilst reliable electric motors are really simple to build
That's true, although a fuel tank is also really simple to build while a rechargeable battery and related charging controllers/equipment get pretty complicated to manufacture. Some of the complexity gets pushed elsewhere.
I remember in the 90's when a lot of carmakers were developing variable valve timing where the valve timing would adjust based on RPM, using the different parts of the camshaft for each cylinder's timing, so that it could maximize performance/efficiency for a wider range of RPMs without trying a one size fits all approach for the whole range. And each carmaker used a slightly different approach, trying to do something to squeeze out just a little bit more performance out of the same size engine.
Or consider the nature of the transmissions, and the rise of the automatic transmission, which allowed carmakers to start going into 6-10 gears (or the continuously variable transmission) because shifting gears could be abstracted away from the driver's perspective.
The history of a lot of the other engineered functions (getting power from the engine to 2 or 4 of the wheels while allowing different rotational rates, getting fuel into the cylinder, cooling and lubricating the engine, getting the fuel/air mixture right, etc.) shows that it's so many different things to worry about just to make the car go, reliably and safely.
In contrast, this is a complete electric motor, it was created for demonstration purposes but it is still fundamentally the same technology as an electric motor in an electric car.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor
But what about the vroom vroom noises?
Some EVs add them on the speakers inside to please that crowd lol.
That's where you know that they're dumb: people don't want lane assist or touchscreen air control, but to be able to have Lambo noises!
BMW even partnered with acclaimed composer Hans Zimmer to make custom sounds on certain of their more expensive EVs.