Quote:
Originally Posted by TheIglu  300 million people in the US, two thirds own a car and you don't think consumer fuel efficiency is important?
Bottom line: People in this country are too stubborn and unwilling to give up anything in their personal lives to have any positive changes happen that aren't forced down their throat. |
I absolutely think that consumer fuel efficiency is important. But don't you think that the small gains that are being made could be far out weighed by improvements in freight fuel economy? I don't know of any stats, and would love to see some, but lets look at freight trucks. How many of those are on the road at any given time? They prob avg in the single digits for mileage (18 wheelers, trash trucks, cube trucks, etc...) vs the consumer fleet average which must be at least in the high teens. If we could increase the freight mileage, wouldn't that make a larger immediate impact than creating new cars that people aren't buying? Make a freight truck that gets better mileage and industry will buy them because their costs go down. They want every advantage they can have to keep profits up. Maybe I'm wrong.
I think that all sources of fuel consumption have to be looked at and improved. No question. But there will be no one answer, and I don't think that focusing on consumer vehicles is the best place to start, thats all. It is a huge uphill battle to get the avg American to modify their lifestyle to help the environment. So why start with them? Make the improvements with people that want to help. Truckers may not give a shit about the enviro, but they sure do care about fuel mileage!