The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Free market....are you suggesting there is no monetary incentive to inventors and innovators at present to come up with the practical hydrogen fuel cell? They would get rich regardless of the current oil price.

Not particularly. Look at hybrids. It seems like the companies should be making a fortune off of them, but they're not? Why not? Because the volume isn't there. And because the volume isn't there, the cost of manufacture, parts, and repair is high. And because those are high, the consumer doesn't save money by making the switch. So consumer adoption has been slow. It won't accelerate until it gets past that balance point (it's been about a wash to own a hybrid vs. a similar class traditional compustion engine vehicle for a few years now).

The same will be true for any alternate fuel solution. The cost of manufacturing, of implementing the infrastructure to support the technology (fuel stations, e.g.), and the cost of maintaining a vehicle with a new technology will be expensive compared to the ridiculously cheap production of tradictional vehicles. Therefore, owning one will remain expensive compared to traditional vehicles. So, adoption will remain slow until there's enough of a demand and infrastructure for those costs to drop below the costs of owning traditional vehicles. And one way that could be accelerated is with a significant increase in fuel cost.

Or to put it more succinctly, if gas were double what it is now, everyone would be buying hybrids.