Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
I don't really disagree with any of that, but this is a case where "if you build it, they will come".
Look at the stampede for EV trucks now, and as mentioned above, that 63% of Maverick orders are for the hybrid.
The fact that the first hybrid in the US was an ultra-efficient 2-seater completely missed the strength of hybrid technology; to downsize the ICE requirement and recapture kinetic energy during deceleration while maintaining acceptable performance characteristics.
Hybrids should have started with the truck, but instead we were busy trying to figure out how to get a flea to be a tiny bit more efficient. If someone had built a 27 MPG full-sized hybrid truck, with electric 4x4 and great performance, they wouldn't be able to keep them on showroom floors.
The mantra that "you got to pay to play" is only chanted in truck/jeep forums to console people. If there were fuel efficient versions available, people would change their tune.
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President Clinton's Program for a New Generation Vehicle ( PNGV ) was about 80-mpg passenger cars. The rumor is that the automakers figured that they could defeat the law, and only HONDA and Toyota took it serious enough to construct a commercial product and put it on the market.
The technology ( TRW ) had been on the shelf since 1972.
No one spoke of pickups.
I had a 39.9-mpg truck in 2017 and it didn't ignite anyone's imagination. That would be 45.8-mpg with GDI. As a turbo-diesel TDI, we'd be looking at 50.7-mpg HWY (actual ).
The pickup truck capital of the world still loved their trucks with $5/gallon gas.