Futurology

I'm not talking disingenuously, I'm all pro-electric. In fact it looks like my next car will be a Taycan, unless something changes unexpectedly.

But counting engine rebuilds as an inevitable matter of life is rather disingenuous too. My other ("hobby") car is a 1977, so that's 47 years now, and still on the original engine and transmission. This is not an uber-reliable statistical anomaly: it's an unreliable piece of shit (a handmade sports car from a small manufacturer) but despite that, the block is still solid and original. Engine rebuilds are not common, unlike batteries which have an ever-degrading chemistry no matter how good they are.

And I strongly disagree on good design being a single point mass of over 700 kg concentrated in one block. The "skateboard" around suspension components and chassis is the most common design for a reason.