And my point, beyond the ludicrous and inefficient configuration overall, was that the life of the engine is very finite even in light use, even assuming proper maintenance (will the manufacturer recommend more flexible maint intervals based on hours x amps?), and could even suffer from too little use. We’e seen rubber and plastic parts go bad after a decade. Gaskets, belts, electrical connectors, other.
So if 80% of these engines can run the equivalent of 300,000 highway miles and 20 years at 15,000 miles a year with only normal maintenance, how long do you think they last with a hard-to-define equivalent of 3,000 start-stop miles? 2,000 years? You know that’s wrong. Depending on start-stop cycles and impossible to know engineering mistakes, it could have a shorter life than normal, for all I know. But let’s say it lasts 40 years (outliving how many batteries?). Very little work was done by a very powerful and complex engine. You asked something like “optimize what” but then said you were only mentioning one kind of optimization. You can’t really say both. The value and expense of this fine engine are far from optimized in use here. It’s wasted.
“We’e seen rubber and plastic parts go bad after a decade. Gaskets, belts, electrical connectors, other.”
My wife’s Lexus is now ten years old and has had none of those problems.
She gave her 2007 Toyota to her daughter. Of the above maybe belts have been replaced.
Same with my Mother’s 2002 Infinity now being driven by me wife’s nephew.