Natwerk Designs

Why is Detroit so far behind r and d on green cars?

Andy Frank in northern California and others around the country and the world are doing really interesting things re green cars. Why is Detroit, even now, after all they've been through, so slow to adopt so many of the innovations. The easiest example is the plug-in hybrid. But there are plenty of others.

Public Comments

1. Gas sucking SUVs sell better. Why put money in to r&d for a product most peaple dont want.
2. Most of the green car designs are lip service and complete crap. I'll illustrate my point better before you judge. electric car- Great on paper...not well thought out. Anyone living in a cold climate knows it's nice to have a heater. where do you think that heat comes from. An electric car would go like 10 km's if it also had to produce electric heat. Not to mention road trips. The distance you can travel isn't that great, and that's usually with one person in the car tests and no luggage. Lets take an electric car on a road trip...lets drive 100km and then wait 6 hours for it to charge back up. ya...not so good. Also consider what would happen if everyone plugged their car in at night. We already had a massive blackout a few years ago. most of north eastern america might recall. Adding all those electric cars wont help without adding new energy sources. and green energy wouldn't come CLOSE to producing enough. Think of all the cars on the highway every moment of every day. Hybrids - nice to be more efficient but no1 has considered the complete environmental costs of PRODUCING the batteries.. disposing of the batteries...what happens when they get older as far as chemical reactions.. These things are just not well thought out yet. they are being rushed. we don't have the battery technology we need yet to make viable green cars for all areas. Some places will be able to get them first. Detroit is north and deals with the cold so maybe that's why they see this where others don't. No1 is looking at the fact that no matter what, it take energy to move all these cars and trucks every day. The energy demand wouldn't decrease...it would just change forms. We either burn gas. or we have to make way more coal burning plants to produce the electricity the new cars would need. It's not free, it's just changing forms. We don't have viable free energy technology yet. Not to mention the infastructure isn't there to change fuel sources. Hydrogen is unstable and hard to store. Gets horrible mileage (ask mazda) and can't be made fast enough without using tons of electrical energy. Gas is still our only option at this point from a mass sales perspective. Detroit got on the hybrid wagon but it's expensive and people are starting to fade on the hybrid idea because the initial cost is so much it outweighs the gas savings...especially when you get almost the same mileage with a well tuned diesel engine.
3. They are nearly, or already are bankrupt. They do not have the money to do real R&D.