Posted on 08/08/2012 5:37:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Here the Obama Administration KNOWS that this mandate is for 2025, 13 years from now and long after he has departed from office. How many of the policies made in the Clinton years do we blame him for? (Well I do but then I have a working memory!)
The statists want to push most of us into little 2-seat cars, while they go around in huge SUVs and Limos.
“I would rather drive an older Peterbilt than a new GM econfoilmobile.”
Peterbilt? Uh, no he didn’t! ;-)
Leftists know that. Innovative technology is one way the right fights the left. They do not want us to succeed with new technology, they want us to fail.
Their real problem is larger cars and trucks cause them painful feelings of size envy. Their objective is to force everyone into visibly smaller automobiles in an attempt to reduce their personal pain. They are convinced they can never be happy until no neighbor has anything visibly larger than they do.
That 54.5 mpg objective by 2025 is not attainable with existing electro-mechanical technologies and we can’t expect to see cold fusion reactors running Chevy Volts in the near future.
So the government will work with the industry to employ Smoke and Mirrors.
Rather than adjust the mandatory CAFE mileage to something actually attainable, they will manipulate the data (as the govt. now does with the unemployment data), and employ caefully crafted loopholes to make it appear they have accomplished the impossible.
“I don’t believe increasing the fleet gas mileage necessarily increases the cost of the car.”
It most certainly does. A parts manufacturer gets hit in 2 ways. First, the lighter commodities (aluminum, magnesium, etc) are more expensive than rolled steel. Second, those materials are more difficult to manipulate in manufacturing while maintaining the same craftmanship or durability. The first drives up their cost per part and the second lowers the number of parts produced hourly, which then increases the allocation of fixed costs per part produced.
Now extrapolate that to a car or truck that consists of 10-12,000 tier 1 parts, then go backwards over 3-4 subtiers in the supply chain.
Don’t worry tho, when the prices go up as a result of the governmented directed policies, then those utopians will just be able to shift the blame to the evil corporations. The ignorant masses will eat it up!
Interesting - Ford produces a car in the USA - right now - that gets about 70 MPG. It is made for export only.
Why? - The EPA says it emits too much CO2 per gallon of gas burned, by about 10%.
Even if CO2 emissions were a problem (which they are not) this rule is completely stupid.
Because...The CO2 this car emits per mile travelled is well below other cars, because of its great fuel economy.
True - and you can personally verify the car’s existence s on the Ford europe web site.
That is the stupidity of the Obama administration.
Which Ford vehicle are you talking about?
It is called the Ka in the UK.
“Environment and sustainability
Each of the engines available is low-carbon, emitting less than 120 g/km CO2. Choose from the responsive and economical 1.2 litre Duratec petrol engine and the advanced 1.3 litre Duratorq TDCi diesel. The Ka is also impressively economical when it comes to making your fuel go far – achieving 67.3 mpg combined.”
“First, the lighter commodities (aluminum, magnesium, etc) are more expensive”
My idea is to use steel and other cheap stuff, but smaller amounts of it. We end up with smaller, cheezier, cheaper cars that get high gas mileage.
If buyers want more exotic, expensive cars that get high gas mileage then make some of those also. Maybe that’s all the new car buyers want. In that case forget the cheap cars.
They do not produce the Ka in the US. In fact, they don’t even produce the Fiesta in the US. I’d wager that particular car is manufactured in Colone, Germany, but that is just a guess....
The smallest car that they make in the US is the Focus (C-Platform.)
i believe the engine is made here in the USA.
What you envision is potentially realistic, however that type of car would not meet the other government mandated requirements. A very small car, made from very cheap materials would not have the architecture to meet all of the safety requirements, i.e. multiple air bags, front end structure integrity that can withstand a crash but still has the ability to collapse when in a pedestrian crash.
The problem is that the government has mandated requirements that add hundreds of lbs to a car, harming its fuel efficiency, then think they can change the laws of physics to magically increase efficiency.
It’s not. There is no way that they are going to produce an engine here unless they vast majority of them are used in vehicle production here. The cost of freight is to expensive and the risk of having them on the sea for 6 weeks minimum is to great.
They will produce vehicles here for export if the receiving country has similar regulations that do not require to many alterations, however if the regulations drive to high of a “uniqueness” to the car or engine, then they will make it in a region of the world that can accomodate the production more uniformly.
ok then -
I saw that they 1.2 liter duratec and 1.3 liter duratorq (diesel) were produced in Michigan and in mexico.
Show me what you found for the manufacturing location.
My point is still that the Obama administration (EPA) is stupid for not encouraging much less preventing these vehicles from being sold in the USA.
OOps. Skipped that paragraph.
It ain’t about cars...
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