Very true!
Solyndra, A123 and Fisker; worse investments ever made. Don't know how many more billions need to be wasted, to understand the technology isn't there yet.
If, any of them projected prominent vision, many private equity firms would have bought and capitalized on them.
Indeed, some obvious gigantic failures there, caused mainly by the misguided delusions of a few Democrat politicians who in their quest for "clean transportation" threw away hundreds of millions in US taxpayer money in Fisker alone.
Most European midsize luxury cars equipped with the diesel engines, such as the 5 series, E class and the like, produce up to 60mpg. Importing those to US would make the king of Dubai too upset, as we wouldn't be as reliant on oil.
THIS! Those cars are amazingly efficient and work well in every possible way. They're much less complicated and cost much less than the mostly useless and otherwise extremely boring hybrids that the US auto industry is trying to shove down the throats of gullible consumers. Buying, say, a Lexus RX hybrid instead of a regular V6 one costs something like 10 000$ more, at least here in Canada... that requires about 250 000 miles before the lower gas costs compensate for the higher buy price. Not many Lexus buyers keep their car at that mileage.. hell, at that mileage most have probably disintegrated.
But I suppose that diesel will never trump hybrid in North America... for three simple reasons:
1) A lot of attention whores like to buy hybrids in order to prove their "love for the environment", they don't care about fuel economy. These are the same people who bought H2 Hummers 10 years ago. It's all about the image that's fashionable at the moment.
2) Hybrids are pointlessly expensive, so the industry will favor them in order to milk more money from consumers.
3) As you said, the gasoline industry. The very unfavorable taxation imposed upon diesel in the USA basically means that someone somewhere doesn't want them to become popular. It could be American car manufacturers, or it could be oil companies... or a mix of the two. But this leads to some very, VERY strange marketing: consider the Chrysler 300; in Europe it's sold as the Lancia Thema, and it can be bought with a V6 diesel. That diesel V6 Chrysler/Lancia is built... in Ontario! Yet North Americans cannot buy it.
On another note, i have liked the alluring styling on the Fisker, as i find the Tesla to be austere. Too bad, it's not the other way around.
Yeah, the Fisker does look good... its styling is unique and really makes it shine out on the road today. Too bad the company is basically belly-up.
