Everything about the car must change
It looks too much like a science experimentIn the last few days I've been hearing about how dumb hybrid cars are and how nothing more than diesel is needed in America. I guess these knuckle-heads believe that diesel isn't dependent upon foreign oil. Maybe one of them can explain that one to me some day.
Anyway, I was reviewing a few articles this morning on the best American cars. Of course, none of them were hybrids. Consequently, all of them offered city mileage at 25 mpg or less, far less for some.
No problem, right? Just fill 'em up with batteries.
Of course, just to convert a Chevy Tahoe into a Tahoe hybrid requires about $10,000 worth of hybrid batteries and components. Yet, the Tahoe hybrid still only achieves a little over 20 mpg in city driving.
That just won't cut the foreign oil.
But, let's forget cost for a second. Let's think of an every day electric sedan that offers at least a few hundred miles of EV power, and one that can recharge in minutes, not hours. The geniuses over at MIT are working on such a vehicle. Unfortunately, the batteries alone cost $80,000, and costs can only be forgotten for so long.
So, just filling today's car designs with batteries and electric motors isn't going to be a solution for some time either.
Can the US auto industry survive well into the future, without completely re-inventing itself? Sizes, materials, powertrains, etc. Isn't it time to realize that everything about the car must change?
Labels: Foreign Oil Dependency, Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
12:35 PM
7 Comments:
It's the old which came first dilemna, the chicken or the egg. Or to put it another way, John Q Public's attitude or the auto industy's mindset. It really is a dilemna because the auto industry just says it makes what people want. Personally, I think the attitudes of people have to change first. How many Americans are willing to make oil independence a key factor in their decision in buying a car, let alone placing the environmental issues as a high priority. Even if people don't believe that global warming is real, they cannot deny that pollution is harmful.
We believe we can change the current course and help get us on a path of decreasing CO2 levels. We are working on a negative emissions vehicle. Pinwheel GT
Americans talk big but when it comes down to it, very few of them are willing to make the effort to change.
The best example can be given with all these self-righteous suburbanites who have their mcmansions, SUVs, and over the type lifestyles.
They claim it's all about their kids....their kids' future, blah blah blah blah blah.
When it comes down to it though, not a single of them will be willing to give that wasteful, self-indulgent lifestyle so as to secure a cleaner, better, more productive life for their children.
Interesting thread....
No doubt, with electic vehicles, you do not have to use the same basic template to design a vehicle.
For example.... I have seen numerous EV designs with 4 individual electric motors mounted on each wheel.
This may be a problem for US automakers, who have been historically very slow and stubborn when it comes to making changes.
I think the jist (or is it gist) of the comments is that it's not the automakers that need to change as much as it is the American consumers attitudes that need to change.
Both the automakers and the consumers have to change.
Consumers will change after gas prices go up and not before.
Automakers need to make more fuel efficient vehicles.
Part of the reason the consumers are buying what they are buying is because they don't really have a choice.
Example.... A friend of mine went to a dealership in search of a small 2-door truck. What he found was there were no small trucks on the lot, and that all of the trucks had 4 doors. The dealer told him that if he wanted a 2-door truck he would have to special order it.
What did he buy? A big truck with 4 doors.....
The ultimate attitude of the consumer is usually dictated by the cheapest upfront cost of ownership. It seems it will be hard to get consumers to change that attitude.
Most consumers, according to the studies I've seen, acknowledge the dangers of foreign oil dependence. Unfortunately, they also acknowledge the fact that they are not willing to spend much extra as part of an effort to reduce their foreign oil dependence.
Yet, if there were as much talk in the press and from our politicians about foreign oil dependency, as there is about global warming, I wonder if more ground couldn't be gained.
Cap and trade. Global warming. These issues just don't resonate with most Americans and they usually lead to a lot of distrust. Thus, if hybrids are sold and marketed as global warming fighters, then most Americans might also mistrust this technology.
Ironically, micro polls on this site demonstrate that most that are interested in hybrids are not driven by global warming. Yet, Prius commercials, for instance, are completely dictated by environmental issues.
Somehow, it seems to me, this is an angle, a piece of messaging, that could be more effectively used to change the people's thinking.
Fear. Perhaps it's time to use fear to achieve a positive result. It isn't hard to align foreign oil dependency and fear. It wouldn't be hard to make foreign oil dependency part of the 'war on terror', for instance.
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