EV alternative for light/medium duty trucks

valhalla360 wrote:

Actually, mandates haven't had a lot of impact. Most of the big jumps in efficiency happened when fuel prices spiked and the customers chose to buy higher MPG vehicles. Mandates without a fuel price spike have typically resulted in circumvention of the rules...Example: the proliferation of the mighty SUV "truck" that is for all practical purposes just a station wagon rebranded.

Mandates don't make a difference? Then why do auto companies fight so hard against them?
Now mandates don't always work as planed. When smog started to get bad, Cali started, other states then Feds followed with mandates to clean things up. (Remember the "road draft tube"? When I saw a explanation of PCV, I put that system on my '54 GMC I6 running in my '58 Chevy Engine bay much easier to keep clean) But when mandate said must clean what came out tailpipe, the technology was either not available or too expensive, so MPG went way down. (Personal example; My wife, in 327 small block powered '67 Nova would get about 16-17 MPG driving to/from work. Replaced with new '73 350 small block, 8 MPG. At same time my '72 half ton, 350 small block ran 16.) And like you say manufactures/buyers changed vehicles offered. Before the station wagon/SUV thing, pickups changed into sedans without deck lids on the trunk. But when high gas price/competition from foreign and more efficient cars caused advances in engine efficiency on smaller models the "fleet average" mandate forced that tech to spread up the line.

Working in the industry, recycled asphalt is very limited on roadway projects and that's where the vast majority is used. The problem is as the asphalt ages, it "dries out" and becomes less effective as a binder in the asphalt concrete. When it's used, it's typically more for political reasons as opposed to engineering and capped at 5-10%, so as not to impact the quality of the pavement too much. Reducing the amount of virgin asphalt used by 50% but having to repave twice as often, doesn't provide much benefit. Ground up it does make a nice gravel for driveways.

Fact is asphalt has never been a great road surface. If dumped in a fill, tests have shown the oil will leach out, contaminate water. And even if the road is unused the surface will break down, allow water into subgrade.
Over the last couple of decades, in this area, recycling concrete has increased. In the past, a early step in repairing a interstate highway bridge was asphalt crossovers to get traffic off bridge. Now they are using concrete.
About that "nice gravel for driveways". 1 summer I worked my truck and trailer for months, loading millings where suburbs where repaving, hauling into small towns, stopping at the grain elevator to weigh, then tailgating out on the oiled dirt/chipped roads. Little work with skid-steer, blade, and roller, call the streets "improved"