I don’t feel like ‘inability to set fire to other vehicles’ is a strong selling point for either ICE or E cars. ICE cars burn out entire parking lots all the time.

Waiting for the ugly schadenfreude from the fossil fanboys...

100% is arbitrary, though. Based on the nature of batteries, it’s much slower to fill up the last bit than the first bit.

Why does it have to be 100%?  It’s better to ask how many miles you want charged in 10 minutes, irrespective of total battery capacity.

Counterpoint: There aren’t enough parking spaces.

That is actually a myth the automakers like to push as an excuse. The requirements were modified specifically to account if people switch to SUVs/Trucks. That is why they created 4 categories, 2 for cars and 2 for suv/trucks. So if there are more SUVs on the road, that isn’t a problem as far as requirements go.

Lebron said he was activating playoff mode, but he failed to mention he was activating J.R. Smith playoff mode. 

but there is, I think, a genuine economies-of-scale problem to consider by giving states the power to pick and choose the standard based on which party is in power at any particular time

It’s 1/2 the size.

2nd Gear:

Wait, you’re saying your old truck had better fuel economy than a new one and using that to excuse to let the auto industry not improve fuel efficiency? Are you playing devil's advocate against your own position? 

The point Ivan’s making is that a CA vehicle is not suddenly not compatible in other states. Currently under Tier3/LEVIII the Federal and CA emissions are the same. The only thing they are proposing to change as far as I know is the fleet averages. So If CA makes your fleet meet 45 MPG and Fed says it 37 MPG, the CA…

Or they can do jack shit about fuel efficiency until the next time there's a competent administration that wants higher efficiency, at which point they'll whine about how they need more time again.  I know which one I think is more likely.

I disagree. External pressure has always yielded the greatest and quickest improvements in manufacturing and related industries. Think of it this way. At the beginning of WW2, there were prop planes. At the end of it, there were jet fighters. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of applicable situations to prove this…

The industry has proven that without a check they won’t do anything. Look at the small overlap test - they only addressed the side that was being tested. If you take away a strict goal like the average fuel economy number, you’ll have cars that no longer progress.

I mean, don’t you want to save money at the pump? The…

The reality is that they will just offer lesser cars and keep prices as high.

Going against anything California/Obama/Science/Common sense keeps his base energized.

They’re kind of like guaranteed money in pro sports contracts. Execs are more likely to get fired, so they have clauses that essentially guarantee pay if their contract gets cut short.

and automakers—well, automakers basically don’t want to have to build cars for two separate markets, so they’re in the middle.