I feel like the automakers are certainly capable of creating remarkably high-mpg vehicles,however have not realized a market which insists such vehicles exist.
When CRX's and Metro's,and such were on the market,they constituted less than 2% of total vehicle sales.That's not a 'driver' for product development.
Hucho mentioned in 1985 that when fuel economy was a paramount specification in vehicle design,that we'd see vehicles based upon streamline bodies and wing sections with Cd 0.15 and below.
Ferdinand Piech,in the 1990s,insisted that 'his' cars would be at Cd 0.10 within a decade.Cd 0.10 was the Cd of a penguin,and certainly,his company would be able to mimic the efficiency of a penguin (paraphrasing).
In the early 1980s,automotive engineers were discussing Cd 0.10 as a reasonable lower limit for automobiles.
Hucho believes we might get to Cd 0.08.
Only university Eco Challenge and World Solar Challenge cars are utilizing this 92-year-old technology.
Automakers are joint-stock corporations and have a legal,fiduciary responsibility to pay the largest dividend to shareholders.They don't like to take risks.
The upshot is,that anyone interested enough in the technology,will go to the trouble to mimic the technology,and by default,serve as a technology demonstrator to other consumers,perhaps educating by default.Kinda like EcoModder's.
