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I'm not a truck or car fanatic, but I found it interesting, and a little sad, actually, that a major new release of a low mileage truck was just released, in the news, for 2015, now that gas prices have cratered to a US average of $2.75(as of Dec. 9, 2014)......
The EPA mandated that all US vehicle fleets, and all foreign ones sold in the US, as of 2016, must average 37.8 MPG, as of 2016. Sounds high, but it is so, and that means trucks have to be brought up as well. Trucks were never ever seen as mileage friendly, and strictly utilitarian, per what they can tow, haul, etc. Now, they are really bringing up the mileage, as of 2016, and I have a hunch no one cares, per the low prices.
Not all truck lines will be brought up per mileage. The worry is that, now that gas prices have cratered low, few will be interested in these new, low mileage deals that the companies have spent a fortune prototyping....the fear is that they will now all sit on dealer's lots next year on rollout.
Here is the talking point to discuss......now that gas prices have shot down so far, how will this affect the new lines of high mileage cars in general, including hybrids and all electric lines? Now, almost every make of car has a hybrid version, which generally brings the mileage up to 43MPG plus, on average. They were all created and greenlighted when gas prices were high....now that gas is low again, and prob for most of next year at least, does anyone really have any desire to pay a little more for a hybrid(all hybrids are about 3-5K more expensive list than their non-hybrid versions)?
And, what does that do for the electric cars, ala the Volts, Leafs, Teslas, etc?.......
It should be quite interesting to see what effect crazy low gas prices have on high mileage, hybrid, and electric cars and trucks next year......
What do YOU feel the reaction will be next year? Will people forget that quickly? Do they perhaps feel that gas will never go shoot up again, per fracking and such?
To sum, has this low gas price deal just put a knive in this entire movement to rehaul and redesign our entire car fleet to higher efficiency, hydridization, and all-electric options?
In other words, is it 1971 again?
Last edited by galileo3210; 12-09-2014 at 12:22 PM..
It all depends on individual buyers' motivations for purchasing a hybrid or electric vehicle. If they are doing it to save money, you are right that it will take them longer to recoup the extra money spent on the new technology and those buyers may taper off until gas prices inevitably rise again.
For buyers who are purchasing for environmental reasons, nothing changes when the gas price goes down. Either fossil fuel use is harming the earth or it is not - it really has nothing to do with how much gas costs. Although, you could make the argument that if people believe the method used to extract oil is even less environmentally friendly than before, this may be even more of a motivation to purchase a hybrid or electric vehicle. Most of the hybrid drivers I know fall into this category, and really didn't consider the price differential too much.
Finally, I suspect there are some buyers out there who are drawn to new technology, and purchased because they think the technology is cool. They'll continue to buy hybrids and electric vehicles until something newer and cooler comes along.
I guess it will all come down to how many potential buyers fall into each category. And I'd be willing to bet that different models will have buyers with different motivations. I seriously doubt there are many Tesla owners, for example, who bought their car in order to save money on gas.
It all depends on individual buyers' motivations for purchasing a hybrid or electric vehicle. If they are doing it to save money, you are right that it will take them longer to recoup the extra money spent on the new technology and those buyers may taper off until gas prices inevitably rise again.
For buyers who are purchasing for environmental reasons, nothing changes when the gas price goes down. Either fossil fuel use is harming the earth or it is not - it really has nothing to do with how much gas costs. Although, you could make the argument that if people believe the method used to extract oil is even less environmentally friendly than before, this may be even more of a motivation to purchase a hybrid or electric vehicle. Most of the hybrid drivers I know fall into this category, and really didn't consider the price differential too much.
Finally, I suspect there are some buyers out there who are drawn to new technology, and purchased because they think the technology is cool. They'll continue to buy hybrids and electric vehicles until something newer and cooler comes along.
I guess it will all come down to how many potential buyers fall into each category. And I'd be willing to bet that different models will have buyers with different motivations. I seriously doubt there are many Tesla owners, for example, who bought their car in order to save money on gas.
Extremely good points, AminWi....
Here is my personal feeling and reasons why I would buy a Tesla, or Electric 'brid...
I think the Internal Combustion and Diesel engines are "Steampunk" 1800's tech. Yes, they have advanced since then, but still operate via the same physical principles, per combustion and cracking of gas fumes to drive a powertrain. Not to mention the fuel is the same, per refined oil(gasoline and other iterations)....
After over 118 years, why are we still using this? We lose somewhere around 85-90% of the energy from friction and heat in the engine itself, not to mention all the exhaust the car can't use and spits out(pollution).....That itself is reason for me, regardless of the price de jour of gas, or how plentiful the same is at any time(fracking).
Again, I think the worst thing about the conventional combustion engine is inefficiency. It simply does not work very well, even if it emitted perfume. Add the carcinogins that become smog in LA and other big cities, and no brainer to get rid of these, with no consideration of gas prices whatsoever.
$8 billion of our tax dollars wasted trying to promote hybrid and electric vehicles. Obama 'we can't drill ourselves to lower gas prices' said there would be 1 million on the road by now. Only 240,000 have been sold.
$8 billion of our tax dollars wasted trying to promote hybrid and electric vehicles. Obama 'we can't drill ourselves to lower gas prices' said there would be 1 million on the road by now. Only 240,000 have been sold.
Well...a waste?
Keep in mind that almost all innovation was either created or, in some way, supported by gov't funding and purchasing, not to mention wars
(tech increases hugely, sadly, during wartime....even the nefarious Nazis', under wartime pressure, created guided bombs, audio and video tape, and such....we used the Axis' scientists(Fermi, Einstein, and pals) to create the bomb as well)......
It's a chicken and egg thing....someone has to front the cash to build the charging stations, roads, batteries, and such......I personally saw the battery first used by the Chevy Volt being prototyped at a National Gov't lab a few years ago.......it takes a long time for this to come to fruition...with no guarantees..
I just know the Chinese gov't is funding advanced tech of all kinds around 10X the level of our gov't, which is why we are falling behind....in that sense, 8 Billion is just a rounding error per the money the Chinese are spending..
I truly feel that it is worth every penny to advance our technology industry/infrastructure whole cloth completely.....our roads are defunct, and we cannot even afford to maintain the same.....ditto with bridges, tunnels, et.al........We are driving with 1800's technology wedded to 21st century computers per gas combustion engines....
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I'm not even close to thinking about buying a hybrid or electric, but anyone that thinks gas will stay this cheap for long is nuts. Those vehicles will sell better again when the prices start going up again. Meanwhile, they may end up with excess inventory, but there will still be environmental enthusiasts buying them. I'm satisfied with our 2104 Escape 4WD turbo that gets 22/29, and will be even when it gets back to $4.
$8 billion of our tax dollars wasted trying to promote hybrid and electric vehicles. Obama 'we can't drill ourselves to lower gas prices' said there would be 1 million on the road by now. Only 240,000 have been sold.
I'm always concerned when we have an anti-american such as yourself posting about a president. The constitution empowers the government to promote innovation. Since you are against the constitution, you should be reminded that you are free to leave.
Also, you might want to look at real numbers. Toyota, alone, has sold millions of hybrids in the U.S.
It all depends on individual buyers' motivations for purchasing a hybrid or electric vehicle. If they are doing it to save money, you are right that it will take them longer to recoup the extra money spent on the new technology and those buyers may taper off until gas prices inevitably rise again.
For buyers who are purchasing for environmental reasons, nothing changes when the gas price goes down. Either fossil fuel use is harming the earth or it is not - it really has nothing to do with how much gas costs. Although, you could make the argument that if people believe the method used to extract oil is even less environmentally friendly than before, this may be even more of a motivation to purchase a hybrid or electric vehicle. Most of the hybrid drivers I know fall into this category, and really didn't consider the price differential too much.
Finally, I suspect there are some buyers out there who are drawn to new technology, and purchased because they think the technology is cool. They'll continue to buy hybrids and electric vehicles until something newer and cooler comes along.
I guess it will all come down to how many potential buyers fall into each category. And I'd be willing to bet that different models will have buyers with different motivations. I seriously doubt there are many Tesla owners, for example, who bought their car in order to save money on gas.
Additionally, a lot of people buy them for reliability. They're transmission is more resilient than a typical automatic or manual transmission and the batteries have a very low failure rate over the first 15 years.
I'm not even close to thinking about buying a hybrid or electric, but anyone that thinks gas will stay this cheap for long is nuts. Those vehicles will sell better again when the prices start going up again. Meanwhile, they may end up with excess inventory, but there will still be environmental enthusiasts buying them. I'm satisfied with our 2104 Escape 4WD turbo that gets 22/29, and will be even when it gets back to $4.
I believe the Saudi's are employing a Rockefeller ploy, keep the oil flowing, despite the low prices, with its aim to bankrupt its competitors and the U.S. fracking empire, and once they've achieved that goal, up goes the prices!
But with the short memories of Americans, they're going to be selling a lot of gas guzzlers this year, and the Saudi's getting a good laugh out of it!
And the more intelligent buyers, with a history background, and elephantine memories, you know what they'll be buying!
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