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Speed limits.
If speed limits were lower - like 50mph - then all that safety equipment does become less useful. Lowering speed limits, and thus lowering the design speed of vehicles, would massively reduce their weight and could reduce overall fuel consumption by half.
A vehicle designed to cruise comfortably and safely at 110+mph on the German Autobahn - and that's almost all cars these days - needs a big heavy engine, crumple zones, airbags, sound deadening, etc. etc. Every single component from nose to tail needs to be bigger, heavier and stronger.
A standard 110mph car will use a lot less fuel driven at 50mph rather than 70mph, but a 60mph car driven at 50mph will use half that again.
If we had a culture of slower driving - and legislation to reduce speed limits would be an important step in achieving that culture - then not only would petrol-driven vehicles use far less fuel, but it would make cheap electric vehicles more viable, if they no longer have to keep up with massive, powerful petrol cars. It would also encourage cycling if traffic was calmer.
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