From: Bruce Johnson

> Also you get greater efficiency and performance if you move the motors to the drive wheels

Well, that's pretty much what I meant by calling them the transmission. In a current-day IC engine, you get energy from the engine to the wheels via a system of gears; in an electric engine, you get energy from the engine to the wheels via electrical wires and then motors at the wheels.

It is possible to have an electrical transmission for an IC engine -- instead of running the crankshaft into a transmission box, run it into an electrical generator, distribute it to the wheels over wires, and use it to run electric motors at the wheels. While only experimental in automobiles, the diesel-electric locomotive has been the dominant technology in trains for decades now.