Mankind invested a lot in Internal Combustion Engines, possibly more so than they deserve. Watch this:

• They're inefficient. Even when turbocharged, an average ICE will achieve about 25% efficiency when converting fuel to kinetic energy.
• They're noisy. Fuel burns, potential energy of the fuel is converted to kinetic energy but you can only utilize 25% at best. So where does the rest of the energy go? Simple, some of it becomes noise.
• They heat up. Well, some more of the wasted energy is also released as heat.
• They pollute. In many different ways. An ICE can't possibly burn all of the fuel, that would require enormous amounts of oxygen and air, so they only burn it partially. A good wealth of fuel pass out (either intact or as a result of many chemical reactions) from the exhaust, even when turbocharged. Released waste is hazardous to plants, animals and man.
• There's more crap. An ICE requires quite a bit more of complicated machinery to be useful on small cars: The Transmission System. Quite a lot of the kinetic energy generated by the engine after burning fuel is once again lost somewhere in this machinery.
• They are heavy. ICE and the machinery it comes attached with has to be made of strong and heavy metal like steel to survive the load. Lets face it: a 4-people car, 100kg for each person and 50kg for the luggage makes 450kg. But an average car weight today is about 1200kg. This is, in my humble opinion, ridiculous at best.
• They are dangerous, because you carry very flammable fuel with you. Well, diesels are slightly less dangerous, I must admit.
• Initial, operational and maintenance costs are incredible. These giant waste-generating monsters require that several parts changed with new ones frequently.

So it looks like mankind found another way of screwing each other and himself, not long ago. Boy, compare that to the old way now. Harnessed horses are efficient, relatively fast, comfortable, quiet and environment friendly. Even the waste is utilized somewhere in agriculture industry.

Yes, I drove the car this morning to come to work. And yes again, it has an internal combustion engine and a total weight of about 1200kg.

Soon I will write about the realistic alternatives.