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Government Should Not Prop Up Electric And Hybrid Vehicles

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Government should not prop up Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, a technology that shows little promise, by generous taxpayer subsidies. Imagine, after coming home from work, you just plug your car battery into an outlet in your garage, and then the next morning, your car is full of energy. You would not be late because you never have to stop by any gas station to fill up the gas tank, and you could save money for gas each week. You would not see smoke from the tailpipe and your car is quieter. That image sounds great, and those are some of the benefits an electric car could bring to us. The Obama administration has set a national goal of one million electric cars on American roads by 2015 and this goal was supported with $5 billion in taxpayer …show more content…

Consumer Reports said: "City traffic is supposed to be the hybrids ' strong suit, but their shortfall amounted to a 40 percent deficit on average." Richard Burr, deputy editor of the Detroit News editorial page, claims that when driving under real-world conditions, the 2004 Toyota Prius fell 42 percent short of its city miles per gallon (MPG) rating and required more refueling than a diesel car. Gas would have to reach $5.6 a gallon for over 5 years to offset the higher sticker price of the Ford Escape hybrid. According to the Department of Energy, the compact car gets close to 40 miles per gallon and the Eco version gets 42 mpg on the highway. It also costs far less at a starting price of about $17,000. For electric cars, they currently have a limited range, weight issues associated with the storage batteries, and need to recharge for several hours with relatively high-cost electric power. Moreover, the cost of producing larger batteries to improve the range of EVs is currently prohibitive. This makes electric cars are so expensive. Robert Bryce, a former veteran writer for the Austin Chronicle and a journalist who focuses on energy issues and politic gives an example: the new Chevrolet Volt costs $41,000 as much as a new Mercedes-Benz C350 whereas the Honda Fit costs about one-third as much as the new Volt. Therefore, Burr and Bryce charge that owning a gas-electric hybrid or an electric car is merely a fashion statement and should not

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