by Outcast_Searcher » Thu 14 Jul 2016, 22:38:26
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kublikhan', 'L')et's not forget the average age of the US vehicle fleet is nearly
12 years old. New cars sold today are
70% more efficient than the fleet average. Even in the highly unlikely event that fuel economy improvements cease completely from this point forward, we are still looking at a 70% improvement in fuel economy just from replacing the junkers alone. Add to that some modest downsizing and we could very easily double fuel economy.
Good points, but clearly improvements can be made just by economically forcing people to drive more fuel efficient vehicles, if needed. Hybrids, for not much cost, can increase the mileage of some vehicles by a lot, especially in city driving, for one example. For another, a lot of people driving big trucks, SUV's, etc. for "status" could easily get by with far more efficient vehicles, if economics demanded it. Also, it's not like people can't rent a vehicle on the occasional day or two they actually do need a larger vehicle.
Clearly with the CAFE standards in place, either vehicles will, on average, get 5% better mileage per year as time goes on, or something significant needs to change rather soon, as the rules and reality will rapidly clash otherwise.
Thus far the biggest real world impact I've seen from recent CAFE standards is GM making fun of Ford for using aluminum in their F-x50 series truck beds in certain ads. (Given GM's bankruptcy and (poor) quality reputation one has to admire the daftness and hubris of their marketing department for playing that game). So, I have to believe that we're not close to the limit on meaningful improvements, or we would have heard a LOT more screaming from car makers by now.
And following, say, a decade of improvements from measures like these, we are likely to have enough alternate fuel vehicles on the road and being produced to make a meaningful dent by people switching away from gasoline altogether.
If we weren't already so radically screwed by AGW, I might actually be optimistic about the moderate term overall -- but alas, we are screwed.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.