Comprehensive Comparison of Traditional Engines and Emerging Alternatives

As the natural environment deteriorates, electric vehicles will gradually replace internal combustion engines that use traditional fossil fuels. This paper compares traditional engines to alternatives regarding efficiency, emissions, price, and market share. In brief, alternative engines have advantages over traditional internal combustion engines in terms of efficiency, emissions, and long-term overhead, as evidenced by rising market share. In 2022, the share of electric vehicles in global sales has reached 14%. Compared to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, electric vehicles have a higher well-to-wheel efficiency, up to more than twice of internal combustion engine vehicles. From a price perspective, electric vehicles have a higher original cost. However, lower maintenance costs allow electric vehicles to achieve the same cost as equivalent combustion engines in 5-8 years. Electric vehicles typically have low well-to-wheel and fuel emissions and are more sustainable. In the future, more research and development are needed for electric vehicles to make them suitable for most cities worldwide. At the same time, research into the traditional internal combustion engine should be addressed, as cleaner, more efficient engines such as the HCCI engines are already available for civilian use.