ICE cars haven’t significantly improved in close to a century
Let’s see, power steering and seatbelts became standard around half a century ago, the OBD2 port became standard in the 80s, radios got significantly better, starting as a simple AM Radio to then also putting in an 8 track player, and in the 90s and 2000syou could get multiple disc changer radios (I had a 2005 Ford Escape I got for next to nothing a few years agp which had a 5 cd changer stock) then in the last 20 years fuel efficiency has improved dramatically. And this is all just what I can think of as someone who sometimes walks through car shows to look at the pretty cars but has no clue what he’s looking at.
I get what you’re saying about EVs being a brilliant step forward from ICE vehicles. Technically I think an all-electric drivetrain should be the way forwards on all vehicles, including hybrids (seriously if it’s good enough for basically every diesel locomotive out there, it’s good enough for a car) but you have to be honest in your arguments
I agree that car accessories like radios, seat belts, and CD players have improved significantly, but that does not translate to ICEs themselves being significantly improved.
Combustion engines:
1923 - 14 mpg
1966 - 13.5 mpg
1991 - 16 mpg
2019 - 25mpg
Electric cars:
2009 - 85 mpge
2019 - 113
Drivetrains, fuel efficiency, sustainable fuel (solar panels built into the body of the car), battery tech improvement, and so on.
Electric cars have all of the accessory improvements you’re talking about related to ICEs, but are also rapidly minimizing all the relevant material, environmental, and even maintenance costs of manufacturing and operating vehicles to become more sustainable at a much more rapid pace than ICEs have.
Those numbers will go down once everyone is driving 4wd EV Suburbans with half-inch steel plate armor (you know, just so they feel their kids are safe) :)
Ah yes, radio, the main issue why cars kill the environment that much. Or was it the number of Ethernet ports in old OBD connector? I can’t quite remember what issue contributes more to climate change
Cars are shit for the climate regardless of the drivetrain. Electric cars are here to save car manufacturers, not the world.
My comment has little to do with climate friendliness and everything to do with improvements in just the last half century with vehicles when the poster I was replying to tried to say that there’s been zero improvements in vehicles for a century