I was actually talking about the technology to reach the 35 mpg mark. For the last 30 years American manufacturers have been pouring their R&D money into improving the efficiency of tired old designs without trying anything really new. There's only so much you can do to an old design to improve flow and cooling and cut weight. I agree that it would be quite a feat to improve efficiency 40% that way.
Meanwhile European and Japanese manufacturers have been working on real innovations. Japanese manufacturers have been using variable timing for about 20 years whereas American manufacturers joined the club 2 years ago. Americans are still sticking to traditional gearboxes while other countries have made major improvements in the performance of newer types of transmissions. American manufacturers were behind in the transition from coil-distributor ignitions too. Those are just a few existing technologies that improve efficiency without sacrificing power.
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Automakers are selling cars the public wants. That's how capitalism works.
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Yep, and that's part of the reason American manufacturers have been suffering from poor sales lately while Japanese manufacturers like Toyota are seeing record profits and increased sales of fuel-efficient vehicles.
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And what mystical technology is this you're talking about? There is no magic propulsion system that will eliminate gas in the immediate future.
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Given how little people care about gas prices or environmental impacts there isn't anything that's poised to knock off gas. That's not because alternatives like biofuel and fuel cells don't have the potential to be better or have insurmountable problems, but because there's not a terrible amount of effort being put into developing them further. Biodiesel works great, but there's no infrastructure to manufacture and distribute it. Hydrogen has the same problems, plus a few others with the production methods. The problems with both could be addressed within 12 years if there was a push to do it.
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You probably also believe the government is holding a patent on a 300 mpg engine so they can keep their "oil buddies" in business.
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No.