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With the technology that was available over twenty years ago, the auto companies could have produced cars and trucks that would get much better gas mileage than they do today. They chose not to do so. After the Arab oil embargo of the mid-1970's, the auto companies downsized the size and weight of their products and reduced oil consumption through improved auto design and therefore reduced Middle East oil imports by as much as twenty percent. Part of the reason they improved gasoline mileage was because Congress passed mandatory mileage standards that the auto companies had to meet (CAFE standard).
Besides weight reduction, autos from the 1980's onward gained technological improvements. For a comparable size and weight car or truck, these improvements should have brought about much better gas mileage across the board. Yet they didn't, and this could only be because the auto companies wanted your car to waste fuel to keep the demand, and hence the price, higher.
As a comparison, years ago, I owned a 1964 full-sized Ford, a really nice, and big (4000+ pounds), car. It had lots of room and a big trunk. It was old technology. In warm weather, I easily got 14 to 15 miles per gallon around town and 17 to 19 mpg on the highway. Many comparably sized cars and trucks today, with all the improved technolgy, can't do much better than that. Some can't do as well. This has to be by design.
There is a movie floating around called (something like) "Who Killed the Electric Car?" It's about a fleet of electric cars that was test driven by people in California. Most of these cars were manufactured by General Motors. They used batteries that were recharged when the cars were parked. They were good looking. They used no oil and produced no pollution. The people who drove them loved them. They proved so popular that GM cancelled the test, took back all the cars, and had the cars destroyed.
One last comment about the FRAUD being cooked up by the auto companies and the oil companies today. They want you to believe that they are developing the transportation technology of the future that will eliminate YOUR dependence on gasoline, reduce pollution, and save you money. Their solution is hydrogen-fueled cars. Don't you believe it.
Hydrogen car technology is years away from being perfected. Meanwhile, the oil companies can rake in record profits selling you ever higher-priced gasoline for your car from ever decreasing oil supplies. That is precisely why they want hydrogen cars to be the new standard.
Hybrid car technology and electric car technology are available and cost effective today. Mass production and economies of scale would make hybrid and electric vehicles comparable in cost to old technology cars.
Electric cars cost much less to maintain and therefore would save you money: Electric motors are much simpler in design than gasoline engines, have far fewer parts, require less maintenance (no tune-ups, no oil changes, can be air cooled, do not rquire complex and expensive transmissions). Of course, this means your expenses for maintenance and repairs, a big factor in auto manufacturers, dealers, and oil company profits would drop substantially. Therefore, your total cost of ownership for an electric car would be the same if not less than for a gasoline powered car.
Hydrogen powered cars would still keep you dependent on the oil companies for fuel. You would have to stop at their stations to fill up. Hydrogen producing "refineries" would get shut down periodically causing an "unavoidable rise" in prices at the pump, etc., etc.
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