Because we’ve had so much evidence of upstart manufacturers being locked out of the market?

Seriously.... we didn’t have fuel economy standards until 1975. We lost most of our “upstart manufacturers” before then.

Most people are incapable of doing the math to determine the best choice.

FWIW, a Yaris and a Prius aren’t really comparable. Try Corolla v. Prius.

I’d bet if you compared Corolla LE vs Corolla LE Eco sales, you’d find most people buying the LE, even though the ECO is CLEARLY the more cost effective choice - a $380…

I’d suggest you simply raise your prices in such an instance. We’re subsidizing gas to keep it cheap right now, and that allows you to drive that vehicle without paying the full cost of it and its impacts. If costs go up on you and all your competitors, it shouldn’t be an issue to raise prices.

That wouldn’t help at all. Ever since the footprint formula came into effect, vehicle footprints have actually STOPPED increasing. The bloat came under the old formula.

And coal gets no subsidies? So the countless abandoned mines and ash pits that the public is having to pay a fortune to clean up aren’t subsidies?

2nd gear is why we need 1st gear.

People are very short sighted. Gas at $1.85 today could become $3.95 tomorrow, and while an inefficient vehicle today might not hit your wallet that hard, it has the potential to. If you’re more efficient to start with, those shocks are much less meaningful.

But people have a nasty…

What kind of simpleton do you have to be to sit there and wonder why the DMV just handed you two license plates instead of one?

And?

Those self-tapping screws are completely invisible after you put the plate on, and they won’t cause any speedup in degradation of your vehicle. Plastic doesn’t really care so much if it has a hole in it.

Good thing you’re white.

Arguably they take up less land than the expansion of lanes needed to handle left hand turns and the associated backups they cause.

What would take up even less land and allow for more development would be a serious effort at mass transit. But that’s “socialism”.

All that is absolutely possible. After all, replacement Prius batteries have gone from $10k to under $3k in 15 years...

Of course, there are also other uses for “bad” EV batteries - ie, home electrical storage, that could well keep prices somewhat high for some time to come.

The average service life for cars is much longer than that - you’re confusing the average age of cars on the road with service life.

Currently, if you average the age of every single vehicle on the road in the US, it is 11.6 years (http://www.autonews.com/article/20161122/RETAIL05/161129973/average-age-of-vehicles-on-r…

Hybrids vs. plugins are interesting in how they react to diminished capacity. Idaho National Labs tested hybrids at 180k, and found capacity of the batteries was greatly reduced, but mpg was barely affected (since hybrids use only a small % of capacity). For a straight EV, though, there is a big difference, as this…

“slightly upgraded XLT”?

What do you consider slight upgrades? I can price out an XLT SuperCab on TrueCar here and it barely crosses $30,700.

Capacitors would be perfect for that...

They’d only be market dominant if they were the only players. Don’t count on it. And don’t think for a second they’ll necessarily get it out on schedule. They’ve promised us affordable working fuel cells for years and haven’t hit their stated goals.

No, but I know quite a few people who have had Prius batteries fail in the 9-13 year range. That’s one thing when you can replace it for $3k or less and finish up the life of the vehicle. It’s another thing entirely if it would cost $15-20k.

Yes, you are doing a pretty damned good job of changing the discussion.

I state, based on facts, that coal plants are closing because they’re too expensive. I even cited a source. You claim that they’re not because of backup power. I provide a source whose examinations of thi question show that even including backup…

Sorry to break it to you, but you’re the one that is off. Look at the EIA’s reports on lifecycle costs and you’ll see how expensive coal is. And that’s before even accounting for indirect subsidies for fossil fuels. Such as covering all the cleanup costs for abandoned mines, not charging for damage caused from…

Except Tesla has been bragging that they’ve started production.

Of course, it isn’t really production - its closer to what traditional car companies call pre-production test sleds.