Do you think the government should force manufacture of fuel effciant cars?

Question

They have electric roadsters that do 0-60 in 3 seconds and have a 100 mile plus range lineing up for production. Just add a small desile generator and some solar panels and it will get 100 to infinity miles per gallon. Why don't they mandate hybred and solor car manufacturing! Think they should make a limit on how much fuel a vehical can consume? Like 1 gallon per hour private and 3 commercial?

Answer 1

You can't mandate something like that.

The consumer dictates what will be built. The companies respond to that.

When gas got to $3.00 a gallon, SUV and pickup sales went down to its lowest levels since 1995. People were looking into more efficient cars. Toyota and Honda had already thought ahead and been producting them. The government encourages it by giving tax breaks and allowing them into HOV lanes. The US car makers were still churning out SUV's and fell behind yet again. Now Toyota is poised to become the number one car maker because they're able to think ahead, innovate, and respond quicker to the market.

Now that gas is back to $2.06 a gallon, people are going *whew* and are driving SUV's again. But there is a percentage that are thinking ahead and are selling their SUV's and buying the Toyota's and Honda's.

You can blame the SUV and Minivan market in part on the increased safety levels required by the government. Since they require car seats for each kid, a family with three kids needs a larger vehicle so Minivan's were born. Guys were harassed about driving a "minivan" so the car manufacturers created SUV's to satisfy a guy's ego.

Then you have the Hummer type ads. You've seen them. Where they harass the moms now, calling them wimps and pressuring them to buy Hummers. What a bunch of crap.

Answer 2

A lot of the world is run by oil companies via taxes and revenue.
There are a lot of alternatives, but the best one that I like is propane. Propane is emission free burning. And takes less fuel from the ground. It basically is taken from the top of the oil (fumes) and is compressed into a liquid form. Thus using no physical oil and making the oil last much longer as well as no harmful exhust. With so many benifits why not use it? My father converted an 18 wheeler from diesel to propane, and numerous other vehicles. I believe that the world and world governments would not prosper as well as they do now if there were required to make changes. And that's a no no!! There is technology to make the fuel in a car go much further. A friend of mine bought a
Ford about 8 years ago at a Baltimore dealership. The car ran great and was nice. The reason he bought it was to drive to Boston. When he got back to Maryland he still had more than a half of a tank of fuel left. When he took the car back to Ford and told them that it either didn't use much fuel or there is a mechanical problem. He left the car with the dealers shop to be looked over and when he returned, the car was gone from the garage and from the property. It dissapeared in a wink of an eye.
The Dealer gave him another new car, needless to say it needed a substantial amount of fuel to be driven. I believe that Ford, Chrysler, GM, the government and the oil companies are to blame for the problems that we have concerning transportation.
Auto makers have the power that some governments have with all the money they have. I also believe that when we choose to change our system it will be because there wont be much oil left in the ground.

Answer 3

Nate, the government cannot fix all your problems. There is nothing scarier than "I'm from the government. I'm here to help." I drive a commercial vehicle, and pay for my own fuel. Believe me, if there was any way I could consume only 3 gph and make money, I would be all over it. This would only let me go 22mph, and I don't think you want me to be on the highway going that slow. I usually do about 650 miles a day. It would be impossible at 3 gph, even with a co-driver. Even with a hybrid, the fuel needed to turn a generator big enough to move 80,000 lbs. would use almost as much as I do now. And what about trains? They are about as efficient as they can be, and they use far more than 3 gallons per MINUTE going up a grade.

Nate, it comes down to this. You can only control what you do. You can try to encourage others to reduce consumption, but you can't force them. Keep trying.

Answer 4

No, I think it's too much of a change and would dramatically change the economy... in the long run - for the better; but for right now... not so good.
Right now in Ontario Canada, every gas station is required to put 5% Ethanol in their gas... which will reduce emissions and is like taking 200,000 cars off the road. I think this is the most efficient way of doing it... just change the fuel (slowly of course). The world will always need oil and gas and if the process is done slowly, I can't see it being a HUGE deal.

Answer 5

No.
If they did, the manufacturers would end up with a lot of unsold fuel-efficient cars, while the public still buy the gas-guzzlers.

What the Government should do is encourage (via tax breaks etc.) consumers to purchase fuel efficient cars, which in turn will lead to the manufacturers building fuel-efficient cars in order to meet consumer demand.

Answer 6

No need. Market forces will take care of that without government intervention. Look at how much gas-hog SUV sales have crashed in the past couple of years and how much fuel efficient sales have increased.

Government mandated economy standards are pretty much worthless. They are used as bragging rights by the politicians but the market will take care of the problem all by itself.

Answer 7

And lose all that oil money? I think not!!!!! Politicians have equity in keeping big oil alive. Sorry. How are the rich going to get richer?