Yep. But when applied to EV's, things change. Locomotives, for example, benefit from the heaviest motor designs, since they need weight. EV's benefit from the lightest motor designs. These designs are making their appearance now, and will continue to evolve as motor drives, batteries and EV's evolve.Hillhater said:
Well, there was a tremendous potential for improving the first 10% efficient ICE engines. And we have seen many of those efficiency improvements. Variable ignition timing? Check. Stratified charge? Check. Closed loop mixture control? Check. Atkinson cycle engines? Check. Turbocharging? Check. Multivalve engines? Check. Cylinder shutdown? Check.
We've also seen many attempted improvements that looked promising - but ultimately did not deliver on their promises. Water injection? Helps with power in some engines, but does not improve efficiency enough to add the weight/complexity of the injectors. Rotary engines? Cool, but not ultimately more efficient than piston engines.
There is undoubtedly more improvements to be made in the ICE engine - but after 100 years of development, most possibilities have been tried, and either accepted or rejected. So pretty much all the "low hanging fruit" has been harvested. There are more things to try (hybrid turbocharger, for example, that adds a motor/generator to a turbine shaft) but the age of significant, straightforward improvements is pretty much over.
