Heh. Actually, the current state of the ICE based automobile is horribly inefficient. For all of the gas we burn, AT MOST 15% of the energy pushes the car down the road. That means we currently throw away at least 85% of the energy as waste heat. Not to say that it's possible to engineer a 100% efficient system but surely we can do better than this. Even if we stayed with burning fossil fuels, there are types of IC engines that are a darn sight more efficient than what we currently use.

The single biggest problem with a future of "status quo" is that all of those third world countries (most of whom are doing their best to get to a standard of living enjoyed by the developed countries, despite the covert oppression they experience from Western business -- let's not get that argument started ) are increasing the number of polluting automobiles on the road much faster than the population is growing. In ten year's time, there will be double the number of cars operating in the world. Even if they all buy cars that are twice as fuel efficient, we are only maintaining the status quo (and that's assuming we have enough oil, which we don't).

Cars have to get significantly more efficient fast or we're in real trouble. And in the bigger picture, we also have to learn to be a lot more efficient in all energy production or we're going to see prices, pollution, and carbon emissions all skyrocket.

The good news is that despite big oil's active work to eliminate competition (and don't think for a moment they are not actively working to stamp out any new technology that has a chance to unseat them from control) the train has left the station and we are about to enter the golden age of energy production (a bit of an optimist here but hey, we have so many new tech things on the hoizon one or more has to work out, right?).