The term “ICE cars” doesn’t make much sense to me because ICE stands for “internal combustion engine”. What I don’t understand is why it’s called “internal”. I mean I have never seen a car or truck with an external combustion engine. All the vehicles I have driven since I was 13 had an internal combustion engine so why mention it?
1 Like
As far as I know only the earliest cars were external combustion. I think they were steam engines, which are external combustion. Electric power plants that generate electricity are external combustion if they burn fuel ( as opposed to solar, wind, etc ). So if the plant burns coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear, it’s external combustion.
With modern cars, the fuel is burned inside the cylinder so they are internal combustion. Something like the Mazda Wankel engine doesn’t have cylinders, but it’s still an internal combustion engine.
All of the old train steam engines were external combustion.
3 Likes