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Originally Posted by aerostealth
Certainly higher mpg standards are doable.
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Yes, some higher standards are doable, but the weight penalty inherent to some safety features required to "federalize" a random vehicle make it more difficult.
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Electric drive technology which is on its way to becoming mainstream makes 100 mpg equivalent routine. Within several more years people will look at ICE driven cars as quaint and outmoded.
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I'm not sure if electric drive is going to become mainstream so soon at all, but certainly some mild-hybrid capabilities and features like regenerative braking and electric assist are likely to become mainstream sooner.
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Giving the automakers what they want now will only retard progress and set America back again. Having more fuel inefficient vehicles in our mix will only cause the price of gasoline to rise.
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What has set America back were those policies that favored SUVs and larger minivans classified as "light trucks" in order to bypass emissions and fuel-efficiency standards. And then, some safety standards implemented by NHTSA seem quite likely to have been set to eliminate competition from the Japanese automakers and their forward-control vans.