[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

... This supports my argument that subsidies are not generally required to develop a technology and make it viable. Instead, it generally just makes specific businessmen and politicians wealthy at the expense of you and me. ...

I bet you cannot name one that actually got rich from subsidies. I can't for sure. Elon Musk of Tesla, Nissan with their Leaf, even Honda with their hybrids(*) all lose money on every car sold despite the subsidies. Without subsidies those cars would be even more expensive, sell less, suffer from being produced in even lower quantities; not get build or sold at all.

It takes visionaries like Edison to break the cost/profit curfew on new technology. When Edison promoted electricity for home lighting he insisted that the light bulbs he sold should never cost more than 40 cents, even though it cost him $1.20 to make them. Because he knew that at $1.20 per lamp most households would just stick to their trusty oil lamps. He expected, rightly so, that in time with large numbers the cost per lamp would eventually drop below 40 cents. The rest is history; we don't use oil lamps any more. We still use oil cars, though.

Not many entrepreneurs have the balls to take risks like Edison did nowadays I fear, unless they are really rich and determined to do something good with that.
So what should a government do, concerned about pollution and such? Pass a law to forbid or curtail ICE powered cars? Or subsidize cars that don't use ICE's? Or just do nothing, ignoring the problem?
I don't like them sitting around doing nothing. I don't like them putting fences to prohibit people from using their cars in the way that fits them best.
What rests is to stimulate the good cause by putting money in, a fraction of all the taxes we pay.

I think the government cannot function if it cannot exert its power bestowed on it by us though democratic means. Subsidies are a benign way of nudging those involved towards the wanted goal.

(*) Recently Honda came under fire because the batteries in the Honda Civic Hybrid from model year 2009 onwards frequently failed, often just outside the warranty limits. So they extended the warranty limits for both duration and mileage, even though that will just increase their loss.