Question: Do cars have engines or motors?

John Welford answered on 2 Jul 2012:

I think there is often confusion between what’s and engine and what’s a motor.

When people say engine they usually mean something that converts chemical energy into movement through combustion.

When people say motor they usually mean something that converts electrical energy into movement.

Most cars have internal combustion engines that burn either diesel or petrol in order to drive them forward. That’s the big lump you would find under the bonnet.

Modern cars also have loads of much smaller electric motors to do things like moving the windows up and down, releasing the boot catch and moving the wing mirrors. There might also be small motors that move parts of the internal combustion engine around, to let in more fuel and stuff like that. (This is the sort of motor that I look at).

So although they have electric motors on board it is the internal combustion engine that drives them forward (for most cars). BUT on newer “hybrid” cars, they might have a big electric motor that helps to drive them as well as an engine. Then they can do clever things like use the electric motor in town so that there is no pollution but use the engine on the motorway so they don’t run out of battery life.

Just coming onto the market are “all electric cars” which don’t have an engine at all and use a big electric motor instead. They are currently a but limited as there are not many places to charge up the batteries (compared to the number of petrol stations there are!). I think this will start to change though and soon you will start to see electric car charging points appearing around towns.

This makes it a really exciting time to be working on motors!

I hope that answers your question!? Leave a comment or ask another question if there is anything else you’d like to know!