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new car fuel precharge
new car sticker price includes mandatory charge for 100000 miles worth of fuel/electricity | |
Just as cellphone buyers must get activation plans
(effectively, required usage fees), new car buyers should have
to pay -up front- for 100,000 miles worth of the vehicle-
compatible propulsion energy of their choice: SUV owners
would have to pre-buy the amount of gas their guzzlers will
need
to go 100,000 miles (how does $10000 sound, as a typical
figure?...); economy car buyers will pay less; electric car
buyers will pay the going rate for 100,000 miles worth of
electricity. Of course the difficulties lie in 1) standardizing
the fuel efficiency index, i.e. 100,000 miles of driving under
what kind of load/speed/partial oxygen pressure &c.; 2)
accounting for volatility in energy prices, i.e. do you lock in at
current rates, try to forecast a mean rate over the next
'typical' 100,000 mile driving timespan, &c.?; 3) accounting for
the influence of this practice on such volatility, i.e. will car
buyers start speculating on energy markets via their own
purchases??... All tricky details which would be admittedly
tough to iron out, but such a plan, if enforced, could drive
home the fuel economy issue in a bold way few other
consumer market incentives would.
European petrol price variations
http://www.exxonmob.../uk_pump_prices.pdf
Which country will you buy your car in? [DrBob, Oct 04 2004]
UK Transport Statistics
http://www.transtat...tion%20and%20prices
More numbers to chew on (check out table 2.5). [DrBob, Oct 04 2004]
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Yeah, plus do your really think an administration like Bush's is gonna say "hey everybody, try to use a bit less oil will ya"? They're oil-crazy. |
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Using the information from the links provided, I calculate that, in the UK, this would put £6120 on the price of an average car. I could get the same vehicle in Luxembourg for only an additional £4368. |
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Second hand car values would be affected by how much of the fuel allowance had been used up, and would give an extra measure for buyers to guage the previous usage/condition of the car. |
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What would happen to the car when the fuel was all used up though? How would you balance the purchase of extra fuel allowance against the expected life of the car? |
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BTW most new cars these days (at least in Europe) have a design life expectancy of 150k miles. |
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Poor fuel economy is paid for in the reduced resale value. |
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Where I fill up, I pay about US$100 to fill my car (about 70-odd% of that is duty), and do so every week. With those economics, a Honda hybrid makes sense, over the life of the car. A small-engined Honda Beat makes sense too. I don't drive either. |
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$100?! What do you drive? |
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My car just went over 100000 miles. Do I have to trade it in? Can I trade it in? What kind of credit will I receive? Why do I have to pay up front? Why does this sound like a "punish all people who drive gas-guzzlers by making them escrow their fuel costs"? |
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So many questions, so little mileage. |
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Many well-taken objections, of which I'll try to address
only a few: 1) re. 'poor fuel economy is paid for in the
reduced resale value,' I'd respond that this is not a tax on
gas guzzlers, but simply an up-front consolidation of
forecast costs that will occur with usage anyway -- a way
of making writ large and immediately apparent the
variation among car choices in fuel economy. One might
argue that SUV buyers can even do -better- in the long
run if they buy when fuel costs are low...plus, this system
would certainly speed up refueling stops, by some fuel
balance meter built into the car (might reduce candy
sales tho). 2) after the 100,000 mile (or other arbitrary)
term is up, one is free to buy or not buy fuel at leisure,
or to sell the car (I do worry that this system, only easily
applicable to new cars, will encourage folks to hang on to
old gas guzzlers, but this could be taken care of by
making license fees contingent on yearly tested fuel
economy). 3) Celphonel network building costs could just
as well be recouped over time as via activation fees -- the
latter just serve to rope in users to build brand loyalty &
c...think also of health club sign-up fees, landline
'connection' fees (decades after the network has been
built) &c. 4) The poor old car industry should simply have
to respond to the market; if this plan happened, it would
be by popular demand, which the car market would have
to adjust to. I'm under no illusions about the chance of
this happening in a country where milk is costlier than
gas, but hey, this is a forum for pipedreams. |
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