by 3aidlillahi » Fri 03 Oct 2008, 16:26:39
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')o do some math and tell me, how many more years before that price hits the median price paid for a car in America?
By basic economics, the easiest savings always come at first, especially when you talk about emerging technologies. But look at hybrids, which use less advanced technology, they still sell about 50% more than the non-hybrid models and they've been out for more than decade when in full-production. That's not including the research before they were on the market. Even in a decade, we're likely to have hydrogen cars that top $50 grand in 2008 USD. That will make it extremely unlikely that they'll ever catch on. Not to mention a near complete lack of refueling stations.
Since they are inherently more expensive, then pretty much the only way they'll have the median price in the US is if they are the only cars. Even if, hypothetically, they catch on, we make the investment and have major breakthroughs in our government in order to build the necessary infrastructure (probably greatest problem with hydrogen and electric vehicles as well), it'll be two to three decades before 75% or so of our consumer passenger miles (not including trucking here) are logged in a H2-vehicle.
Even now, after a decade and fairly decent economic and price settings, hybrids make up like 1% of all vehicles. It would take a monumental shift in our idea of the car for people to drop $50-$100 grand on a vehicle and for investors to pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars for a refueling station (I imagine these prices go down as well).
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ots of those people keep saying it. I googled up like 3 or 4 other references, I found another 3 or 4 which said "almost mass produced". Seems like this point of dispute isn't just limited to you and I.
So because there are other sources that think 200 is "almost mass produced", that somehow validates your assumption? It just shows how many people are ignorant, that's all. I'll ask you, not others: how is "200" out of 13 million cars each year even close to be "almost mass produced"?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') don't need to convince anyone of anything....they can stand on a street corner in LA and get run over by one of these things NOW...seems kind of silly pretending that they don't exist, can't exist, or whatever other shucking and jiving is required when something which was once a pipe dream, suddenly becomes reality on public streets