Electric cars have crossed lifetime cost parity with petrol vehicles across much of Europe. In the used-car market they now have the lowest total cost of ownership.
Newer models even match petrol cars in estimated lifespan, that’s something early EVs could not claim.
This study shows that any new electric vehicle sold today will bring financial benefits to its second and third owner. New electric cars registered now will deliver between €262 and €849/year savings for their future second and third owners compared to an equivalent petrol car.
I remember in the 90’s when a lot of carmakers were developing variable valve timing where the valve timing would adjust based on RPM, using the different parts of the camshaft for each cylinder’s timing, so that it could maximize performance/efficiency for a wider range of RPMs without trying a one size fits all approach for the whole range. And each carmaker used a slightly different approach, trying to do something to squeeze out just a little bit more performance out of the same size engine.
Or consider the nature of the transmissions, and the rise of the automatic transmission, which allowed carmakers to start going into 6-10 gears (or the continuously variable transmission) because shifting gears could be abstracted away from the driver’s perspective.
The history of a lot of the other engineered functions (getting power from the engine to 2 or 4 of the wheels while allowing different rotational rates, getting fuel into the cylinder, cooling and lubricating the engine, getting the fuel/air mixture right, etc.) shows that it’s so many different things to worry about just to make the car go, reliably and safely.
In contrast, this is a complete electric motor, it was created for demonstration purposes but it is still fundamentally the same technology as an electric motor in an electric car.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor