Mercedes ditching diesels in North America

Mexicowanderer has gone off the deep end.

Maybe they are conceding they can't compete with FCA and Ford.

Fartdiapers for cattle, banning barbecue fluid, and battery chargers is a hell of a lot "deeper than my end". Mexicowanderer is laughing when attempting but failing to post stuff even more bizarre and wacko than that lunacy.

Laugh on -- wait and see how close to the Funny Farm life actually gets in the next 20-30 years. Failed lawyers who dress up as engineers and scientists isn't really a laugh. Because you, not me, is going to pay for it.

When drug companies get purchased and drugs that have been on the market for twenty years see seven hundred to a thousand percent hikes appear.........

Now, do you think the same mentality is not got to apply when ten thousand new regulations rule your life? This is the new morality -- the new ethics...

How can I take the last breath of my life and not smirk?

Probably has more to do with meeting ever more stringent emissions than anything else.

Having driven an electric car for 6 years now and just recently added solar panels to my house to charge it for free, I guarantee you internal combustion engines are dead men walking. Even worse, self driving cars are going to take us right out of the drivers seat!

And some of you believe I exaggerate about California's laws. You know the state that just raised state gasoline per gallon tax.

The Central Committee agrees with with venerable chairman Brown...

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — California is moving closer to charging drivers for every mile they drive.

The state says it needs more money for road repairs, and the gas tax just isn’t bringing in enough revenue.

The state recently road-tested a mileage monitoring plan.

The California Road Charge Pilot Program is billed as a way for the state to move from its longstanding pump tax to a system where drivers pay based on their mileage.

But it’s not just a question about money, it’s also a question about fairness.

State Senator Scott Wiener and others are saying that when it comes to road taxes, it’s time to start looking at charging you by the mile rather than by the gallon.

“If you own an older vehicle that is fueled by gas, you’re paying gas tax to maintain the roads. Someone who has an electric vehicle or a dramatically more fuel efficient vehicle is paying much less than you are. But they are still using the roads,” Wiener said.

“People are going to use less and less gas in the long run,” according to Wiener.

And less gas means less gas tax, and less money for road repair.

“We want to make sure that all cars are paying to maintain the roads,” Wiener said.

One idea would be installing devices that would clock your mileage every time you pull up to the pump or electric car charging station. Or put a tracker on every car.

“The reality is that if you have a smartphone your data of where you are traveling is already in existence,” Wiener said.

None of this is sitting well with drivers such as Joshua Li, the owner of a hybrid BMW.

Li said he saves around $200 a month by not using gas and said he would definitely not be happy if his driving was taxed per mile.

Randy Rentschler, of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said one answer is to raise the gas tax and up the vehicle registration fee for electric cars.

“If you buy a small car that gets great fuel economy, we don’t get enough money to repair the roads … but the fact of the matter is people are buying trucks,” Rentschler said.

However, raising vehicle registration fees and taxing people with fuel-efficient, hybrid or electric vehicles could also discourage people from purchasing such vehicles.

Fuel-efficient, hybrid and electric vehicles are key to reducing vehicle emissions and improving air quality around the world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They intend to limit energy by taxing the snot out of driving. Less road maintenance. More money for the Politburo. Electric car? Doesn't matter. Taxes matter. Say GOOD BYE to recreational vehicles as you know them. They will ABSOLUTELY change to money per mile against GVW. Bank on it.

Edit Edit Edit

The new tax alone is bringing in ONE MILLION FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS A DAY EVERY DAY "and it 'isn't enough'"

ScottG wrote:
Probably has more to do with meeting ever more stringent emissions than anything else.

x2
FWIW, my BIL has the 6 cyl gasser Sprinter and it's a nice van. Nice price, too.

westend wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Probably has more to do with meeting ever more stringent emissions than anything else.

x2
FWIW, my BIL has the 6 cyl gasser Sprinter and it's a nice van. Nice price, too.

the passenger car emission stds for diesel are tougher than those for light trucks. So.... I can see MB dropping out of car diesels, they and others just don't sell that many. But keep selling LT diesels which they sell lots of in the sprinter etc.

garyemunson wrote:
Having driven an electric car for 6 years now and just recently added solar panels to my house to charge it for free, I guarantee you internal combustion engines are dead men walking. Even worse, self driving cars are going to take us right out of the drivers seat!

Gas price was way high in 2011, so I gave a Lincoln MKZ hybrid a shot. Going in I thought I would be making a big compromise on performance with the hybrid. I was wrong. Getting 38 mpg in a big comfy car and can blow the doors off a lot of gassers at a stoplight. It's a beautifully integrated drive train. Am very happy with it. Electric is great.

I was actually snickering at some hybrids because early on, I remember the "Prius Pass" here in Austin (where you passed the vehicle in the breakdown lane because they couldn't accelerate fast enough and were obstacles on the highway.)

These days, it is a totally different ball of wax. Hybrids are actually impressive, and are as fast, if not better than the all-IC models. Plus, when sitting idle, they don't burn fuel, so if you are stuck in a 2-3 hour traffic jam courtesy of some drunk texter causing a semi to jack-knife, you are in less danger of running out of fuel.

I wish there were more hybrid vans/pickups. Pickups especially, since they need torque at the low range, and electric motors dish it out best at near 0 RPM.