Daimler quitting petrol

[RobDickinson]

Despite telling everyone to keep buying diesel last week this week they call an end to developing internal combustion engines with a switch to electric..

https://insideevs.com/news/371793/daimler-no-gas-e...

[PGN]

Really?

Hard to believe and why would they annnounce it?

[kambites]

PGN said:

Really?

Hard to believe and why would they annnounce it?

Why wouldn't they announce it? Every manufacturer wants to be seen to be at the forefront of the EV revolution.

They're not giving up on ICE now, just saying the units currently under development will be their last. I'm pretty sure they're not the first mainstream manufacturer to say this?

[skwdenyer]

kambites said:

PGN said:

Really?

Hard to believe and why would they annnounce it?

Why wouldn't they announce it? Every manufacturer wants to be seen to be at the forefront of the EV revolution.

They're not giving up on ICE now, just saying the units currently under development will be their last. I'm pretty sure they're not the first mainstream manufacturer to say this?

Governments are announcing future bans. These will be the last ICEs. By announcing they simply seem ahead of the curve.

[anonymous-user]

Hang on, hang on. Check the physics. Fact is, there's nowhere for ICE to go from where they are today. Once you've optimised everything in sight there's nothing left for further R&D to achieve. Doesn't mean they won't stay in production for a while...

[Poppiecock]

Eh?

"Daimler has just announced that it is halting all future development of gasoline engines. The automaker will solely focus on electric cars from here on out. This implies that Mercedes-Benz is taking the same approach."

[cossey]

This is the last generation not they are stopping all development. A base engine typically is good for 10-15 years with mild upgrades, maybe longer when combined with improved hybridization.

Not an unexpected announcement and looks quite politically safe but does not mean they will be producing only BEVs any time soon.

[anonymous-user]

The issue is that passenger cars are transient devices, ie they aren't used at a constant load. We accelerate, then deccelerate all the time. Even on a motorway cruise, thanks to traffic and road conditions, you will still be changing speed pretty much all the time.

And as an ICE powertrain is mono-directional, ie it can generate power, but not absorb it, so however efficient you make that power conversion, it'll still lose out to an electric powertrain in the real world. So you get to the situation where you've spent miilons (probably billions) on developing an absolutely cutting edge ultra high efficiency ICE and it is still using 2 or 3 times as much energy as a basic EV powertrain!