A new ICE age

Reports of the death of the internal combustion engine have been greatly exaggerated and ICE technology is now being developed at a staggering rate as motorsport responds to new challenges

- GEMMA HATTON

With governments all over the world continuing to encourage manufacturers to develop electric technology the question has to be asked – how much longer will internal combustion engines (ICE) be around? The short answer is: for a very long time.

‘Recent news headlines have been making claims such as; “No more IC engine vehicles allowed on the road after 2040”, “Death of the IC engine”, “Volvo are only making electric cars from 2019”, and in most cases these announcements are all incorrect,’ says Professor Steve Sapsford. ‘What has actually been said is that vehicles won’t have IC engines as the sole source of propulsion after 2040. Instead, the majority of vehicles will be some form of hybrid, which could include full hybrids (HEV), plug-in hybrids (PHEV), mild hybrids (MHEV) or one of the many other variants.

‘So really, there is no need for businesses to panic and have a knee-jerk reaction and suddenly convert everything to electric,’ Sapsford adds. ‘The IC engine is not dead yet. In fact, we believe that in addition to pure battery electric vehicles (EVs), between 70 to 80 per cent of vehicles will still have an IC engine as part of a hybrid powertrain in 2030.’

This is good news for motorsport too. If IC engines still have a role to play in the future, then improving their efficiencies will remain important enough to continue development. And what better test bed than the brutal environment of a race track?

Power shift