ICE (internal combustion engine)
Internal combustion engine
An engine that burns fuel in cylinders. On CarPairly, ICE is the gasoline powertrain: a car with no electric-only driving mode, mild hybrids included.
ICE stands for internal combustion engine: an engine that burns fuel in cylinders to drive the wheels. Diesel engines are internal combustion engines too, but on CarPairly the ICE powertrain means a gasoline car, and Diesel is listed separately. In car shopping, "an ICE car" is shorthand for a conventional car with no electric-only driving mode, as opposed to a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or BEV.
The numbers that describe an ICE car are engine-centric: power, torque, fuel consumption in L/100 km or mpg, CO2 emissions in g/km, and fuel tank size. Its running costs follow gasoline prices rather than electricity prices, so the total cost of ownership math depends on local fuel prices.
On CarPairly, ICE is one of the powertrains in the Gas branch, alongside HEV, PHEV, and Diesel. Gasoline mild hybrids (MHEV) are also classified as ICE here, because the U.S. Department of Energy notes that mild hybrid systems cannot power the vehicle using electricity alone.