In general, People don't seem to give a shit about fuel economy (off this list, of course). People keep buying large SUVs and pickups to go sit in traffic in. The best selling car in the US since 1981 is a truck; the Ford F150. There have been plenty of small cars offered over the years. Remember when Honda brought the Civic into the US in '76, (I think it was called the CVCC back then). It was 1500 lbs and 148" long when introduced. Each year they made it longer and heavier, now it's almost exactly TWICE the curb weight and 178" long!
Each year cars get bigger, taller, and heavier. That's because that is what people want. On Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 8:20 PM paul dove <dov...@bellsouth.net> wrote: > The Japanese subsidized exports so they could sell them cheap! > > > Sent from AT&T Yahoo Mail for iPhone <https://more.att.com/currently/imap> > > On Wednesday, April 21, 2021, 8:43 PM, EVDL Administrator via EV < > ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > > On 21 Apr 2021 at 17:50, (-Phil-) via EV wrote: > > > Complain all you want, but unless you fire up your own company and start > > selling a compelling solution that people want it doesn't matter. > "They" sure > > aren't! > > Funny, that's exactly how the Japanese automakers got their feet in the > door > here in the 1970s. Is the US's best selling sedan today a Chevy or Ford? > No it is not. It's a Toyota. That would have been unimaginable in 1965. > > When the middle eastern oil producers shut off the spigot in 1973, what > high > MPG cars was Detroit building? Ford Pintos and Chevy Vegas. If you're > not > familiar with them, look them up. You'll understand what happened next. > > Toyota and Nissan/Datsun had decades of experience building good, > reliable, > small, fuel efficient cars. Their dealers were tacking hundreds of > dollars > in additional profit onto their cars' MSRP, bluntly listed on the window > stickers as "ADM" (Additional Dealer Markup). Nevertheless, as each car > rolled off the transport, the sales manager rang up the next eager buyer > on > the waiting list. > > They also advertised them liberally. For example, Nissan put up > billboards > on major highways reading "Datsun Saves - about a gallon a day." > > Now the major automakers - this time including the Japanese - have left > the > bottom end of the market wide open. No more are they offering small, > efficient, low-cost vehicles to capture brand loyalty from young people in > their first jobs. > > So who will fill that gap? I expect that Chinese and Indian automakers > will > repeat the Japanese manufacturers' 1970s success, with both EVs and small > ICEVs. If they can deliver decent quality vehicles like the Japanese did > back then, they will own a piece of the market - one that could easily > grow > in the future. > > Of course the US could also follow the European model, and put a thumb on > the scale for EVs and fuel efficient ICEVs through legislation and taxes. > But we probably won't. > > David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey > > To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my > offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > Our jobs are not supposed to bring us enlightenment. They are > supposed to bring us money and stolen office supplies. If we > are going to perform any ritual at work, let it be to invite > a demon into the sacred circle to smite our enemy, Liz in > Human Resources. > > - Jessa Crispin > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ > LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20210421/a12d88c2/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
