And/or they would have made the EVs just ugly enough so that people would not want them. Remember when the federal energy efficiency mandates were new the historical light bulb manufacturers did morph to more efficient technology but the bulbs were intentionally designed so as to not be compatible with traditional lampshades. Such is the wonder and beauty of technology-forcing regulations. Incandescent bulb makers had no interest in investigating the practical lighting potential of LEDs, until they were forced to.
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The Willys Aero-Eagle from the early 1950s reputedly got 35mpg:
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True, but all modern cars are going to be far safer in any type of crash. That doesn’t mean they needed to bloat up and double in weight. A first gen Civic is roughly similar to a VW bug of the 70s, 1500lbs and 50-60hp. While the current generation is close to 3000lbs with power up to 200hp. I suspect a modern rebuild of these 70s cars to meet current crash capabilities would net you a vehicle that was 20-30% heavier, not 100%. But it is hard to sell something when your competitors throw in more and more, with more space year after year.
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