"Paying customers to drive your cars is not sustainable."
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From: Chicagoland IL
"Paying customers to drive your cars is not sustainable."
From AE. Thought provoking.
Johan de Nysschen. Publisher's Note: The Audi of America President and someone I consider to be one of the top executives in this business spoke out again at an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday, saying, "I understand why political leaders have fallen in love with hybrids and electrics. But this may be the one time you'll hear someone in Washington say it shouldn't be a monogamous relationship." What Johan is saying is that there are technologies available right now - as in diesel - that don't require massive government subsidies to be cost efficient, and he makes an excellent point. David Shepherdson, reporting for the Detroit News Washington Bureau, said that "De Nysschen favors using diesel technology and allowing the marketplace to pick the winners and losers. He urged the government not to be 'prejudging winning and losing technologies' and urged more work to standardize biodiesel rules." And Johan went on to say that, "The 50 percent or so price increase that the Volt represents over a similar gasoline car cannot be offset through the savings from reduced fuel compensation. The only way to offset the extreme premium is through taxpayer-funded subsidies." Look, the electrification of the automobile is real, but the delusions of grandeur being bandied about in Washington as to the penetration of electric vehicles in our nation's overall fleet are just that. Electric vehicles will be part of the overall solution, but just a part. de Nysschen added that "Paying customers to drive your cars is not sustainable." He is absolutely right. Our headlong rush into the electrification of the automobile needs to be tempered with the facts. And the facts are that this country doesn't have the ability or the capacity to deliver electric vehicles on a mass scale - not to mention that we'll have to pay consumers to drive them - and we won't be able to until closer to 2020 at the earliest, despite the wildly bullish predictions by the Obama administration. - PMD (12/16)
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From: Coppell, Texas
He raises an excellent point in that its asinine for the government to favor "one technology" over the other. It wreaks of industry lobbyists, and you would hope that there would be somebody smart enough along the way to realize this and stop it.
I was a little skeptical of de Nysschen at first, but he seems to speak the truth most of the time.
I was a little skeptical of de Nysschen at first, but he seems to speak the truth most of the time.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 162
From: St. Louis, MO
that's all the government does for anything, not just the car industry.
But the VW jetta is and has been proof for a LONG time that TDI can result in very high MPG.
I'm surprised more people haven't copied them.
But the VW jetta is and has been proof for a LONG time that TDI can result in very high MPG.
I'm surprised more people haven't copied them.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Toronto, ON Canada
Why is NA so delayed?
All of Europe recognizes the value of diesel.
Why are we toying with electrical vehicles WHILE IGNORING diesel? I am not saying electrical advancements are worthless - they are quite good, and in fact, why not couple them with diesel powerplants? We could be getting hypermileage out of the cars.
The agenda against diesel on this continent is dumbfounding. Even of such course is purely due to incompetence, it gives rise to conspiracy theories because it goes against any common sense.
Why are we toying with electrical vehicles WHILE IGNORING diesel? I am not saying electrical advancements are worthless - they are quite good, and in fact, why not couple them with diesel powerplants? We could be getting hypermileage out of the cars.
The agenda against diesel on this continent is dumbfounding. Even of such course is purely due to incompetence, it gives rise to conspiracy theories because it goes against any common sense.
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Joined: Sep 2002
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From: Oakland, California
Someone needs to send every politician in Washington a copy of the DVD "Future Car", in particular, "The Fuel" episode. They basically say what de Nysschen et al have already stated, the future of the automobile industry is going to be a combination of biofuels, EVs, hybrids, fuel cells, solar, air, etc. Not one technology alone can provide the "fuel" needed to satisfy the industry's growing appetite. Its going to take a combination of several technologies to do this. 
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Joined: Jun 2004
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From: SeVa
He raises an excellent point in that its asinine for the government to favor "one technology" over the other. It wreaks of industry lobbyists, and you would hope that there would be somebody smart enough along the way to realize this and stop it.
I was a little skeptical of de Nysschen at first, but he seems to speak the truth most of the time.
I was a little skeptical of de Nysschen at first, but he seems to speak the truth most of the time.
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Joined: Dec 2003
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From: New Orleans, LA
De Nysschen favors using diesel technology
B
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There was a point in 2006 when I was considering buying a new Jetta TDI for $21,000 loaded. Biodiesel was fixed/hovering right around $3.00/gallon and diesel and regular gas was only going up...
At 46mpg or whatever, it would still have been worth it!!!
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From: USA
Except from what I remember the corn they use for E85 is normally not the same used in food. We have enou excess farming capacity in the US that E85 should be able to make sense unless the is a speculative aspect to the corn price market. Meaning people run the price of food corn up because they "perceive" E85 use as making it more scarce.
You mean E-85...Raise food AND fuel prices simultaneously!
There was a point in 2006 when I was considering buying a new Jetta TDI for $21,000 loaded. Biodiesel was fixed/hovering right around $3.00/gallon and diesel and regular gas was only going up...
At 46mpg or whatever, it would still have been worth it!!!
There was a point in 2006 when I was considering buying a new Jetta TDI for $21,000 loaded. Biodiesel was fixed/hovering right around $3.00/gallon and diesel and regular gas was only going up...
At 46mpg or whatever, it would still have been worth it!!!
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From: Sandy VJJville
Except from what I remember the corn they use for E85 is normally not the same used in food. We have enou excess farming capacity in the US that E85 should be able to make sense unless the is a speculative aspect to the corn price market. Meaning people run the price of food corn up because they "perceive" E85 use as making it more scarce.
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From: manassas, VA
And let's not forget about how much gas/diesel get burned in the process of growing corn / trucking it to a plant / turning it into alcohol.
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From: Albany, NY
