The Digital Skeptic: You Could Have a 110 MPG Vehicle Right Now

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7. I don't see internal combustion engines ever becoming that efficient.

I'd say about 33% efficiency is all we're ever going to see from an ICE alone. However, there are plenty of all electrics and on-board generator/electrics that get the MPG equivalent of 100+ MPG, and some of them, such as the Tesla Model S are even wickedly powerful. Considering the fact that these engines have dynamics which are pretty much superior to ICEs in almost every objective measure will make sure that ICEs don't have very much longer to go. Add in cheap, compact and light weight 2 speed transmissions will be coming to electric vehicles and that will tackle issues pertaining to both top speed and efficiency. I'm a gear head and I'll miss gasoline engines greatly, I'll miss manual transmissions even more. But electric motors will power the upcoming generations of cars. It's a bittersweet time for me as ICEs are really getting awesome now. We've got very high compression, direct injection engines with turbos powering economy cars now. These engines have technology that just a decade ago were reserved for supercars.