MIXED GREENS:
A Ford Fusion will earn back its cost premium through fuel savings faster than any other green vehicle out there -- but it will still take 5.6 years. That's certainly better than the 17 years it takes on a dinky little Honda Civic Hybrid.
Overall, when you consider the mark-ups on green vehicles versus the fuel cost savings, it's just not worth it yet from a cost-benefit standpoint for the average motorist/consumer. The one exception, of course, is the commercial realm, where for-hire green vehicles can be profitable as long as there are enough customers out there willing to pay for a green image, or feel, or label, or cachet. Eco-chic-celebrities and corporations with green travel mandates are certainly ready to be milked and plucked.
The real future test for a truly viable green vehicle will be "0 years" needed to recoup costs; in other words, a green vehicle will equal the cost of a conventional one AND still deliver the energy savings. Fuel/cost savings is the far more relevant test for green vehicles than emissions reduction, given the freefall in "climate change" credibility and public backlash against the global warming truth bubble. The bottom line is our carbon is not making us any warmer, thanks to "science" that has proven so flawed it now has been rendered myth.
Technology will undoubtedly improve and allow green vehicles to catch up and cost less, but it will take time and patience sans the environmentalist driven eco-hauteur. Green vehicles will have truly arrived once they achieve a NO SACRIFICES standard, in cost, comfort, and convenience. -- M.R.
Print | posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 11:44 AM