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Originally Posted by redpoint5
There already are; massive ones. The federal government has a $7,500 tax credit, and some states have additional credits that total $10k or more. ICE vehicles have MPG requirements, emission requirements, various restrictions, taxes on fuel, etc. With all of these "incentives for them and disincentives against the alternative" we achieved 3% of vehicle sales.
I'm a broken record here, but the government has no business deciding EV is our salvation because how do they know, and also what about the other countless ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption?
Any scheme that seems smart because of the complexity and specificity coming from the largest branch of government is the dumbest, and any scheme that seems simplistic is likely smart. The smartest solution is to progressively tax fossil fuels and let the market determine the millions of ways in which we'll reduce consumption.
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I'm not sure there's a right answer here. If you do it one way you tax the rich. If you do it another way you tax the poor. For an example, if you tax fuel alone those that will feel the pressure first are the poor. Later, when those that can afford new cars feel the pressure they'd be the first ones to get out of the expensive-to-fuel vehicles. The poor would still be left standing waiting for those alternatives to trickle down to them. Of course that might push more people to public transportation, which could be a good thing.
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Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr
Of course it will. Remember when the mortgage bubble collapsed in late 2008?
I'm not aware about Mexico, but nowadays in Brazil the cost of an entry-level car (and some trucklets) skyrocketed within the last 6 years. Well, maybe as a last-case scenario a small motorcycle with a sidecar shouldn't be totally out of question...
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As long as the sidecar and motorcycle can hold my wife, three kids and myself. I did fit 8 people in a two door Mazda 323 in Mexico once.
I don't know what the prices used to be in Mexico, but even though they have cheaper economy models not available in the USA, they are currently still prohibitively expensive, especially by Mexican wage standards. And the used market is not like the one in the USA. Vehicles hold their value for much longer. Those that I know that own cars in Mexico, and I know a lot of people that live in Mexico, all spend a huge portion of their income on owning what we would consider a clunker in the USA.