270°

Obama says US must shift cars, trucks off of oil

AP/Huffpost: Envisioning cars that can go "coast to coast without using a drop of oil," President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to authorize spending $2 billion over the next decade to expand research into electric cars and biofuels to wean automobiles off gasoline.

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huffingtonpost.com
Bimkoblerutso4303d ago

Won't happen, though. Our politics are too easily manipulated by big business.

We'll run out of every last drop of oil before we even consider switching.

Computersaysno4303d ago (Edited 4303d ago )

Follow europe's example again and downsize, as well as go for economy. Your top two selling cars are massive pickups that barely make 20mpg with their base engine options. All the very very best selling cars in the UK and europe for example can manage double that with their basic petrol options.

Your cars are stupidly gas guzzling, you still think sedans that do 30mpg are 'economical' when that would be completely unacceptable in europe. The base 2.5 4 cylinder huge selling Camry averages just 30mpg.

40mpg+ is the norm for even stuff like large petrol sedans here. Big selling stuff like the BMW 320i series manages 40MPG. The massively popular 320d easily breaches 60mpg.

The NISSAN Qashqai is not small and its base 1.6 4 cylinder petrol is not considered at all economical, but it'll still easily manage 35mpg with our favoured manual gearboxes and thats conservative.....

If the USA simply switched to european methods and virtually doubled your fuel efficiency then the whole world would get decades extra time with the oil reserves available. Instead you are just burning it all away and racing towards your economomical downfall ever faster.

SilentNegotiator4302d ago

But I need my truck. To haul all the nothing that I haul.

kingPoS4302d ago (Edited 4302d ago )

I honestly hope Norbert Mueller succeeds with his invention.
The world need more people like him.

I guess it makes sense for he and his team to go dark. They'll likely need a a fare amount of anonymity with this project. I really hope they're alright.

kingPoS4302d ago (Edited 4302d ago )

I here what your saying. Unfortunately the industry seems to be more interested in maintaining the status quo. It's Even worse is when someone has a steller idea for alternative an fuel or engine design. Their either discredited, bought out, disappear somewhere or wind up dead.

One such guy made an impression at Michigan State University. What's Norbert Mueller doing now?

SilentNegotiator4302d ago (Edited 4302d ago )

Norbert Mueller is still working on it, with $2.5 million dollar funding. He isn't discredited, bought out, disappeared, or dead.

If you're going to conspiracy theory-ize this, at least use someone that I can't find out is working on his idea right now, via 2 minutes of clicking google links.

These things take time and research.

Computersaysno4302d ago (Edited 4302d ago )

Part of the problem is probably the cost of cars (at least native to europe) in Europe is much greater, well it is at least expected to be much greater.

This is somewhat a tax issue, but it does mean however manufacturers have more room to pioneer various technologies in the mass market that would probably be considered too expensive to sell in the U.S market competitively.

I daresay we expect cars to last longer than somewhere like the USA and have been conditioned to pay more for our metal.

This does transfer greater cost to the motorist, but also means that there has to be emphasis on the running costs of the vehicle and its fuel economy.

For example VW were reluctant to release the Passat in its 1.4TSI or 1.8TSI guises in North America, despite them being perfectly capable engines and probably superior to the base engine chosen!

The base option they offered was the 2.5l 5 cylinder, despite the fact the 1.8TSI 4cyl we have in europe is virtually as quick, even more flexible (A LOT more torque) and much cleaner because the engine is much more advanced and it is considerably more economical. Probably somewhere in the region of 10mpg conservatively.

Saying that in the UK the basic 1.8TSI costs MORE in pounds sterling than the basic 2.5 in North America costs- in dollars!!!

I think VW intend to put the 1.8TSI to market but it'll probably end up being ignored for the larger engine options despite being a perfectly powerful and flexible unit.

aeon2804297d ago

I would agree that in Europe the cars offered are more advanced than those in the states but the cost difference has less to do with this than it does simple supply and demand. The average citizen of Europe has little need for a car because of the concentration of the bulkof the population into a few major cities all of which are connected by some form of mass transit. In the states we far fewer cities where auto,s are not a necessity to function. You also touched on the tax issue. Europeans pay outrageous taxes on the auto,s that are purchased, double and sometimes triple that of a car in the states. I cant explain why because I actually prefer manual diesels myself but there has been a reluctance to except diesels in the states which are really the most viable current option for petroleum consumption reduction.

The major driver of high efficiency vehicles in Europe is the cost of fuel. Western Europe has virtually no Oil production. With the death of imperialism also died the European ability to have a hand in the oil trade market so therefore fuel cost in the majority of Western Europe have been some of the highest in the world for sometime and that has driven the need for more efficient vehicles. Until recent yrs this was not an issue in the States as we have some of the largest oil reserves in the world. If all hell broke loose tomorrow and the middle east dried up the US would have enough oil to maintain current oil consumption for another 200yrs after the initial reduction while bringing the sites online.

70°

James Webb Space Telescope finds 'extremely red' supermassive black hole growing

The supermassive black hole is 40 million times as massive as the sun and powers a quasar that existed 700 million years after the Big Bang.

70°

15 Tips & Settings to Get the Most Out of Vision Pro

Vision Pro is here and it’s a surprisingly capable device. Apple has also loaded the headset with a ton of options and features that aren’t obvious at first glance.

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roadtovr.com
289d ago
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80°

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