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Re:California to open five natural gas plants to avoid black... by sasfasaf on Thursday September 02, 2021 @05:10PM (#28397395)
Ok, but I want numbers. How good can ICEs get?

Mercedes claims their 1.5L F1 engine - designed for power, not efficiency - is over 50% thermally efficient. An EV can't match that. Not with the gas cycle efficiency and all the line power losses.

Re:California to open five natural gas plants to avoid black... by JshWright on Friday September 03, 2021 @09:20AM (#28403811)
The practical limit for an ICE engine in a road car (in a hybrid configuration) is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% (small sizes make efficiency harder). A theoretical ideal ICE hybrid would almost certainly beat a current day EV on the current day grid. But that's not a fair comparison, and we have to modernize the grid anyway.

F1 PUs are absolutely designed with efficiency in mind. The FIA limits both the maximum fuel used in a race, as well as the instantaneous fuel flow rate. When fuel flow rates are capped, getting more power is the same thing as getting more efficiency.