Japanese-Built Prius Carries Energy Bill

Since it was passed by both houses of Democrat-controlled Congress, shouldn't this be in the Political Forum?

 

I noticed the mention of :
"The bill requires that automakers increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

The Prius, the most popular gas-electric hybrid in the United States, gets a combined 46 mpg in city and highway driving. The Prius and the 2008 Honda Civic hybrid, which gets a combined 42 mpg, are the only two hybrids sold in the United States today that would meet the new mileage requirements set for 2020."

I think the author is mistakened here as the "35 mpg" is referring to CAFE mileage, not the pre-08 MY or 08+ MY combined EPA numbers that have been adjusted downwards from EPA dyno test results + have more tests added.


From http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/epadata/08data.zip, it looks like ~57 models (well, some are just variants of models) already have ">=35 mpg" for CAFE purposes. The Prius gets 65.7778. The Escape Hybrid, HyCam and Altima Hybrid also meet the requirements.

 

Since Toyota is leading the way with hybrid cars with the most successful hybrid in the marketplace, with the highest fuel economy, the choice of a Prius is completely appropriate.

While the Big Three claim fuel-efficient cars are impossible to make or too expensive, the Prius puts the lie to all of that nonsense.

Harry

 

I understand what you're saying, but you weren't saddled with legacy costs of them or your parents and grandparents, a big reason why domestic auto manufacturers (and most businesses) are all for universal health care, quality of life be damned.

 

They probably wanted to use a Escape hybrid but couldn't find one at a dealership to use

 

Wanted to replace our Buick Rendevous with an Escape and with about 10 Ford dealers around here there were no Escape Hybrids to be found. I think there idea is that if you don't have any to sell they obviously no one wants one. Sounds like a familiar tactic used by GM way back when.

 

I'm guessing that they wanted to deliver the Energy Bill in a Volt, but they couldn't filibuster that long.

 

What is it about legacy costs that required crushing the EV1s? That could have delived the bill with even less gas than the Prius.

 

Whine and complain. That's what the Big 3 do best. And then sue the government to lower the standards, and spend more on the lawsuit than it would have cost them to meet the requirements in the first place. But of course it's the principle that counts: The principle that in a free country business has a god-given right to squander critical national resources in the name of obscene executive salaries.

 

Slap in the face? Lets hope so, lets hope it acts as a god damn wake up call to the American Auto Industry.

The big argument for SUVs and other land behemoths is that it's what the American public wants, yet look at all the commercials involving cars there are, most of them are pushing the big gas guzzlers. So it's not what the American public wants, it's what the American public is brainwashed into wanting. How many remember some of the SUV ads from 10 years ago or so? Showed your SUV (much smaller at the time too) in the middle of a pristine forested landscape, or having fun off roading, or just flat out telling you "You can drive anywhere in this". What the US auto industry is unwilling to do for economy, they are really fricking great at selling an idea.

Would they rather have had a Ford Excursion with a LCD tv on the roof playing a video of the members of congress giving Lee Raymond a blowjob while being showed in crude? (a little over the top?)

Besides, do they know for a fact that it was a Japanese built Prius? Or was it just a Japanese designed car?

 

Why did the bill have to be driven to the White House? It seems the whole trip is wasteful. Politicians whining is not news. Now that they got a "slap in the face" they need a good swift kick in the butt to complete the set.

 

The question to ask (of the Michigan Politicians) is why doesn't Detroit make a 50mpg car that I can buy today - well actually the day after tomorrow? I'd be more understanding if the Prius was only out for a few years and Detroit hadn't yet caught up. But it's been almost 10 years - since the Prius hit the US market - and the best Detroit can do is a 32 mpg Malibu Hybrid. Sorry, but that's not good enough - especially considering that the current 50 mpg Prius has been available since 2004. Americans certainly deserve better from Detroit.

 

Actually its the Big 2 as Chrysler was recently sold by Daimler to a holding company

It may be the big ONE soon as Ford is doing pretty badly

but then Daimler did build the SMART cars when they owned Chrysler

Also Ive heard that GM owns a massive amount of Toyota stock so they may be partly responsible for the Prius

 

Actually, it is a privately owned company now, not a holding company.

And your point is? If you think that Chrysler had anything to do with the decision by Daimler to build the Smart car, perhaps you could provide some objective proof (emphasis on objective) of your assertion?

Again, objective proof (in particular, the 'massive' amount) would be appreciated. Otherwise it is no different than the claims you make about the Commies of the world.

 

I have no idea what his point is. Daimler-Benz and Chrysler merged in 1998 per http://www2.daimlerchrysler.com/history/index_e.htm. Development of Smart cars began in the early 90s per http://www.smartusa.com/smart-car-fortwo-company.aspx and per " smart remains a vital member of the Mercedes Car Group, a Daimler AG Company."

In 2005, Smart was a money loser and never made money. See http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050426/FREE/504260702&SearchID=73230581548062 and http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051221/FREE/51221001&SearchID=73230581548062. http://blogs.motortrend.com/6209443...ss-more-than-5-billion-report-says/index.html mentions they lost $5.2 billion between 2003 and 2006.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22321197 mentions "The Smart car division is still expected to swing to break even this year and post a profit next year."

GM and Toyota used to have small stakes in each other but I have no idea what percentages if any they have now.

 

Maybe they just used a Toyota because it was important enough to make sure it arrived.

 

or they wanted to make sure that they looked like dorks when they did arrive