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Title: Obama's 60-mpg cars could cost up to $9,000 more (sophisticated gas-electric hybrid, O'mobiles)
Source:
USA TODAY
URL Source: http://content.usatoday.com/communi ... ence-academy-report-suggests/1
Published: Oct 1, 2010
Author: James R. Healey
Post Date: 2010-10-01 13:05:52 by Hondo68
Keywords: Natural Resources Defense Coun, 62 miles per gallon, gas-electric hybrid
Views: 2712
Comments: 4
Advocates and lobbyists say today the Obama administration will unveil a plan for fuel-economy standards on cars as high as 62 miles per gallon in 2025. Timing aside, the cost to you could be significant. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an advocacy group that favors the 60 mpg standard, says such a regulation would boost the price of a car an average $2,700 in today's dollars, and you'd make that back in 4.5 years on fuel savings. But a June report from a respected scientific group -- while not directly addressing 60 mpg -- suggests car buyers could pay more than that: The report, by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), forecast prices of various fuel-saving technologies. The baseline was a conventional gasoline car with a low-tech engine -- no direct-injection, no turbocharging, no cylinder-cutoff, etc. Whatever you'd pay for that kind of car, add $9,000 to the price to get a sophisticated gas-electric hybrid that'd use half as much fuel, the NAS report said. That's a lot more than today's "hybrid premium" of $4,000 or less. In fact, Ford Motor's Lincoln brand has eliminated the premium, pricing its 2011 Lincoln MKZ hybrid sedan at the same $35,180 as the gasoline version of that car. An unsettling aspect of the NAS figure is that the kind of hybrid that'd cost you the additional $9,000 probably wouldn't meet the 60-mpg target. It'd only help an automaker get partway there. To average 60 mpg or so would require many vehicles that get better mileage than that. The NRDC figures that only about 30% of 2025 vehicles could be conventional gasoline vehiclesfor the industry to meet a 60-mpg standard. The rest would have to be advanced hybrids and battery cars. Current mileage regulations run though 2016 and require the auto industry as a whole to hit 35.5 mpg (though a credit of 1 mpg or so can come from other clean-air initiatives that don't boost a car's fuel economy). The government plan for 2017 to 2025 that's expected today is likely to say that the eventual 2025 number should be set between 47 and 62 miles per gallon, leaving some leeway for a less-costly target. Because the rule-making process takes a long time, a final 2025 standard isn't likely to be set in concrete until 2012.
Electric mini-ccars such as this Mitsubishi i-MiEV, due in the U.S. next year, might become commonplace if the federal government boosts the fuel-ecomp,y standard to 60 mpg in 2025, as advocates hope. Meeting that standard would mean that most cars would be advanced hybrids and battery electrics.
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#1. To: hondo68 (#0)
You can't make this stuff up.
Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.
Maybe if we paid for our middle eastern military adventures through a gas tax, there might be more incentive to reduce demand for gas?
Everyone is jumping on the plug-in electric car bandwagon. Sure, there are some impressive ones, like the Tesla Roadster which goes 300 miles on a charge. However, the technology is too impractical to make it the substitute for the internal combustion engine. Long term, I still believe that the answer to clean, unlimited energy for transportation is hydrogen fuel cells. Hyundai is going to have a production fuel cell car on the market in 2012 and GM will have one in 2015. Most interestingly, Daimler (Mercedes) is investing billions in fuel cell technology and they are partnering with a couple of energy companies to build 1,000 fuel cell refueling stations in Germany over the next 5 years. Damlier will start mass producing fuel cell cars once there are enough hydrogen refueling stations. They plan on having 1 million fuel cell cars on the road by 2020.
We should eliminate the personal income tax and replace it with a $100 a barrel tariff on imported oil. That will provide the right incentives for businesses to invest in alternatives (like fuel cells) to market quicker.
#2. To: hondo68 (#0)
Timing aside, the cost to you could be significant. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an advocacy group that favors the 60 mpg standard, says such a regulation would boost the price of a car an average $2,700 in today's dollars, and you'd make that back in 4.5 years on fuel savings.
And the Conservative plan to create jobs is......?????
#3. To: hondo68 (#0)
(Edited)
Electric mini-cars such as this Mitsubishi i-MiEV, due in the U.S. next year, might become commonplace if the federal government boosts the fuel-economy standard to 60 mpg in 2025, as advocates hope. Meeting that standard would mean that most cars would be advanced hybrids and battery electrics.
democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not -- Thomas Jefferson
#4. To: go65 (#2)
Maybe if we paid for our middle eastern military adventures through a gas tax, there might be more incentive to reduce demand for gas?
democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not -- Thomas Jefferson
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