http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.fandom/msg/01b5d27d94622692

His usenet history shows no participation in any technical discussions, anywhere. He has no engineering credentials. And his comments display an appalling technical incompetence.

How could headlights – which use under 1% as much electricity as a traction motor – reduce driving range by 10%? The same goes for his other useless points.

Dedicate all the money from this tax to these incentives.

Talk about eliminating the importing of foreign oil.

Talk about driving down the world wide price of oil and gasoline.

That would do both within five years.

Replace a car getting a city / highway average of 18 MPG or less,

With one getting:

25 – 29 MPG Avg. = $750 refundable tax credit

30 – 39 MPG Avg. = $1500 refundable tax credit

40 – 49 MPG Avg. = $3000 refundable tax credit

50 – 54 MPG Avg. = $4500 refundable tax credit

55 – 60 MPG Avg. = $6000 refundable tax credit

No requirement to buy new – used cars up to 10 years old OK.

Now that would get you a very rapid turn over in your fleet from gas guzzlers to what is today very high efficiency and older cars to much newer cars.

Instead Obama is giving rich folks only $3500 to buy cars with average gas mileage of 20 MPG to 28 MPG.

Some folks can screw up a wet dream.

U.S. EPA rates the non-plug in Toyota 2010 Hybrid ( non-plug in ) at 50 MPG average for both highway and city. This is the current gold standard in Hybrids. These sell for between 20K and 30K before government tax subsidies.

That is 2.7 times the current average gas guzzling clunkers they are trying to get off the road with $3,500 to $4,500 tax credits for the richest Americans ( Obama’s policy – not Bush’s ). Obama will give richer people ( those who pay more than $4,500 in U.S. Income taxes each year ) $4,500 to buy a car that get’s just 28 MPG. More than half the people in the US pay zero ( $0.00 ) dollars in income tax each year – so it only helps the richer half even $1.00s worth.

Tax Credits for just buying a Hybrid, which use to as much as $7,500 have been virtually eliminated.

Plug in capacity without massively expanding battery size could be added relatively cheaply to existing non-plugin hybrids. This might only get you the first 5 to 10 miles per day transferred to the electric grid – rather than imported oil, but times say 50 million cars that could be huge !!!

Obama is instead eliminating effective tax incentives to buy a 50 MPG car rather than a 28 MPG car by phasing out and eliminating effective tax credits for Hybrids ( plugins or non-plugins ) which lack massively larger – and as yet unproven in mass production – electric car batteries.

50 MPG cars are in mass production and using proven technology – in the form of non-plugin hybrids.

It makes more sense to use government policy to pursue say 60 MPG fleets world wide in the next 5 to 10 years than throw Trillions down a rat hole trying to build just a couple ( 2 ) million electric cars with massively larger batteries over the next 5 years.

All the current policy will do is triple electric rates and waste Trillions building cars that likely will be in the junk yard five years after they are built.

ex-EV1 driver, your point is well made.

Your last paragraph, “Most car companies don’t want electric cars . . .”, is probably all too true. I am hoping that Toyota, Ford, and Honda are trying to help change that culture, both inside and outside their companies.

My bet would be with Toyota.