[ausev] AustinEV at the Roundup 2009 (This weekend 9/25-27) - OT GM booth

[gary]

Just a friendly discussion, not to get into politics and philosophy (too 
much), but the fuel improvements are not always there.  Sometimes it is 
pure marketing to just put "hybrid" on there.  I spoke with a Lexus 
dealer about one of their hybrids and he admitted only a one mpg 
improvement, but with better acceleration.  They could have gone for 
similar performance with higher mpg but they didn't.  The 2007-2009 
Tahoes got 20 mpg highway and the new one is 22 mpg highway.  Yes, the 
city mpg did go from 15 to 20 which is good but I guess my "beef" is 
that they spend the most marketing dollars on the most profitable 
vehicles and now they are spinning "green" to keep selling them.  That 
makes sense for any business but we now have a huge ethical element 
here.  Almost anything can be sold in America with enough marketing and 
they are choosing to continue to push gas guzzlers at a time when things 
are at their worst like pollution (SA and others likely to go into EPA 
"non-attainment" air quality), climate change, national security and the 
economy (people get more in debt and loose more on $40K "throw away" 
cars).  It's not (completely) their fault that people want these and are 
buying them but it's still business as usual and that has not worked 
very well for anyone except the CEO's.  They are largely responsible for 
creating the market.

Sorry for those that are cringing at a political discussion on the list 
(especially from an outsider) so I'll go back over to my list.  See 
ya'll at the Roundup

Gary Krysztopik
www.ZWheelz.com
www.aceaa.org
http://voices.mysanantonio.com/drive_electric_san_antonio/ 
San Antonio, TX




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> There's a market for it -- and it does save 20-25% fuel consumption.
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