Electric vehicles & Internal Combustion engine: Key facts they forget to tell you

With now about 0.15% of vehicles on Europe’s roads being powered by batteries, there are suddenly many offering the view that the end of the internal combustion engine is just around the corner, killed off by affordable zero-emission electric cars.

This is justified by pointing at the announcements of several carmakers who are introducing new plug-in models, and by Tesla who took 400,000 deposits for their next new model. We are told that battery costs have come down and that the cars will be a cost effective way of reducing CO₂ emissions.

Indeed it is true that carmakers are investing heavily in electrification technologies, but a closer look at the causes of these announcements reveals some surprises, that can lead to a different conclusion about the future of the ICE.