The golden age seems to be delayed.
Golden Age Hopes
President Trump’s policies in 2025–2026 aim to initiate a “golden age” of U.S. auto production through tariffs on foreign-made vehicles and parts, aiming to boost domestic manufacturing and jobs.
‘They’re All Coming Back’ Trump Says
Yahoo!Finance reports ‘They’re All Coming Back’ Trump Says U.S. ‘Golden Age’ Will Begin Within 6–12 Months
President Trump says the next chapter of American manufacturing could be its boldest yet — and he’s urging the public to get ready for what he calls a “golden age.”
“Our car industry…went to Europe, they went to Mexico, Japan — they went all over. They went to South Korea,” Trump said. “And now it’s just the opposite. They’re all coming back. We have an age that’s coming up, the likes of which this country has never seen.”
Domestic Auto Production Detail
Domestic Auto Production Detail
- The all time high was 588,700 in March of 1995. That’s an annualized rate of 7.064 million units.
- November 2025 production was 98,000. That’s an annualized rate of 1.176 million.
Data is through November 2025, Seasonally Adjusted but not Annualized.
The drop from 588,700 units to 98.000 units is a decline of 83.4 percent.
However, units should rise over time due to population growth. So let’s investigate per capita sales, adjusted by the Civilian Noninstitutional Population (age 16+).
Domestic Auto Production per CNP Detail
CNP Adjusted Auto Production Detail Notes
- At peak production the US produced 588,000 cars monthly for a population of 198 million people age 16 or over. Cars per CNP was 0.297.
- We now produce 98,000 cars monthly for a population of 275 million people. Cars per CNP is 0.036.
Synopsis
Over time, production US production of cars has collapsed. Population-adjusted numbers are even worse.
Improvement in foreign cars and expense of US cars are the two primary reasons.
Trump wants to bring production back to the US. His main tool is tariffs.
While it’s possible to bring production back to the US as a percentage of US auto sales, bringing back overall production is difficult.
Costs
The U.S. is one of the highest-cost producers of cars in the world due to labor costs; tariffs on steel, aluminum, and auto parts; stricter regulations; and US preference for larger cars and trucks.
Raising tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, and auto parts can do nothing but raise the price of cars.
Raising tariffs on auto parts and cars made in Mexico is particularly stupid because the cars Mexico produces for the US would lose money if made in the US.
But OK, if Trump put 100% tariffs on all car imports, then purchases of imported cars would head to zero and domestic sales would then be 100 percent.
But overall car sales would drop and so would exports and auto-based employment.
Trump never looks at the hidden (in this case obvious, costs of tariffs). And he still does not understand that US consumers and Importers pay the cost of tariffs.
Related Posts
January 3, 2026: What Was the Overall Impact of Trump’s Tariffs in 2025?
Tracking the Economic Impact of the Trump Trade War
January 17, 2026: Canada Breaks With the US, Cuts Tariffs on Some Chinese EVs
Congrats to Trump for moving Canada and China closer together.
January 6, 2026: If the Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Tariffs, What Are His Options?
I count seven options Trump is likely to try. There are serious problems with all of them.
February 13, 2026: Trump to Roll Back Some Steel and Aluminum Tariffs Due to Inflation
The Financial Times discusses tariff rollbacks.
Addendum
In 2025, the US auto industry produced 8.88 million “light duty trucks”, and just 1.29 millions “autos”. This reflects the historic difference between 25% truck tariffs and the much smaller 2.5% auto tariffs over the last 60 years.
Auto figures from Fred Domestic Auto Production.
Looks like NAFTA
Also it is counterproductive for Industry to have to pay Health Care Insurance as a cost of production. Health Care should be insured differently, maybe a non age restricted medi-care. Most per capita health care is spent on the elderly, so adding a cadre of younger people to the equation would cost less than it is costing society and industry now.
The downside of that would be the near total loss of control employers have over employees in the US.
That is probably an angle I have never thought of, but true. Look how many lifer government workers there are, because they cannot get a better job or package elsewhere.
Here’s a question: given a hyper-finanacialized US economy consistently overspending fiat currency, was there ever any alternative to the globalization of industrial labour which really took off 1991-1995 (WTO inception)?
Not that there’s any reverse gear on that vehicle. Inquiring minds just would like to know.
Happy V. Day
Yes. It is a global economy in the 21st century. No getting around that.
GM signed a contract with their workers in Mexico, last spring. They got a raise to $3.25 per hour. Gonna be hard to bring those jobs back. Don’t know what Trump is smoking.
Pay really isn’t the issue. Labor costs are not a significant proportion of auto costs. Control matters far more. The ability to treat Mexicans like dirt and not have to worry about labor strikes is what counts. A six week strike is devastating. Whether someone makes $3.25 or $32.50 isn’t that big a deal, though $3.25 makes management happier. Being able to force people into overtime regardless of their plans or lives is worth it weight in gold.
Our only hope is for America to become a Mexican Country.
you all have only identified the little stuff. our world wide imperial military with bases and ships all over the world is a drag on anything productive by the tune of 1 trillion per annum, easy. the footnote contingent liabilities by doing this was 9.11.01 and the ten trillion we wasted in afpak to iraq and libya…………all that wasted currency and ill will is the real problem. you end that and back stateside, with the money in house, we could improve many of the problems. not all. but many. that is the cancer. the other stuff discussed here is just a few little symptoms. i just don’t see amerikans changing their votes for peace and prosperity. i truly hope i am wrong. would love to say so, screaming from the rooftops.
Total U.S. national security spending, including the Department of Defense (DoD), Veterans Affairs (VA), and related intelligence, is rapidly approaching $1.5 trillion annually. The core Pentagon budget for FY2025 is estimated over $859 billion, while the VA budget exceeds $400 billion, driven by increased veteran care costs, totaling over $1.2 trillion for those two sectors alone
You forgot the DoE (nuclear weapons).
And then there’s debt service, debt run up for war spending.
good points.
As you know- its an amazing marketing job.
Plutocrats cater to the delusions, fantasies, distractions, wedge issues, etc. of the small minded to win power, then use the resources of the country to further their interests across the planet. And maybe rape some children along the way for entertainment and other disgusting behaviors.
All possible because the citizens are easily manipulated. The only counterbalance is people turning off the BS, thinking for themselves, and sending these guys packing
much worse than that. read the republic by plato. our democracy works perfect. the people in amerika love to bomb the world and tell the world how to act………the problem is in the mirror of the 98% who vote the uniparty red and blue team. the greens and libertarians are on every national ticket and offer peace and prosperity and only get 2% or so.
Note that 6 to 12 months, the time frame when we get to utopia, falls right after the mid-terms. This is on par with his “I can stop the war in Ukraine with one fall call promise”. Nice try Mr. trump, but I call Bull Shit (again).
My brother’s inlaws worked in the Toronto Toyota plant their whole lives. He a welder, she on the assembly line. They moved to Florida after retiring and became staunch Republicans. But they could never understand why Republicans hated Canadian health care, they had loved it. And they understood that their employer could pay them more and didn’t have to shoulder the burden for health care for all its workers. That is something that makes us uncompetetive in the U.S.; health care is a huge burden for employers. I see it where I work as well.
Americans don’t just pay more than anywhere else, they pay like >2× as much at the macro level, and the outcomes are worse. Many specific operations and remedies are 5-10× other OECD countries.
That’s because it’s a racket, like the MIC and Education.
No incentives to take it on by so-called elected delegates.
The people with the greatest market competition speeches in public are the biggest supporters of rackets, leeching, grift, regulation abetted protectionism, rent-seeking, and monopolization when it comes to behavior.
Trump mentaly lives in times of Ford’s T model when Henri Ford did everything under one roof. Modern car is rather a complicated globally sourced product. As Carlos Ghosn quipped the problem is not to produce a car but to produce it at the right cost. Trump’s issue is Donroe doctrine. When implementing it Trump steps on everybody’s toes so he needs move supply chains back home. But that is not possible because we are not in 1910s anymore, the US doesn’t have the skills, raw materials, energy, labor and machinery anymore. The result is a wave of tariff decessions (tariffs up, down, abolished, etc.) which rattles many industries. Unlike hedge funds industrial companies do not like this type of uncertainity.
Yes. It is hard for companies to plan for the long term when the rules of the game are changed every four years.
4 years or 4 days ?
Yes. You are correct.
Exactly! But if citizens vote for oversimplifications and fantasies of the past, then we end up with a clown making awful decisions. not much to do about it but hope people smarten up
Carlos Ghosn wanted to increase margins. The means getting more bucks per cars but selling fewer ones.
Biden supported EV. US car companies are all preparing to produce EVs.
Now Trump – Drill Baby Drill. Supporting ICE.
Car companies are saying EV sales are stagnating and moved back to ICE after losing billions.
US customers, car companies and presidents are all deluded.
But the world is moving on with EVs.
The rest of the world is moving on in many ways and leaving us in the dust. I sympathize with US companies that are forced to move in the opposite direction whenever the political party in charge changes. It makes it impossible for them to plan long-term and costs them all dearly.
That’s why state capitalism (Chinese style) is beating the totally corrupt and bankrupt Western “democracies” hands down. Run by a country in the Middle East with its financing center in the City of London and its military arm in the US via not-so-secret services that have more power than any POTUS drawing the world into 80 wars or toppling of governments since WW1.
Beam them all to Mars and the world would be a more peaceful place. For a while.
I think Trump would support a coal fired auto if someone came up with the idea.
No? The world is moving on with what makes sense in their context. All over the world, people are choosing hybrids, not even the ones that can be plugged in, because where apartment living is common, plugging in is not an option. In some cases, highly regulated by the fire code.
Mish, something is wrong with those charts or how they are measuring things.
You noted about the first chart “November 2025 production was 98,000. That’s an annualized rate of 1.176 million.”
But new vehicle sales for 2025 were 16 million.
That says domestic made US vehicles are just 6% of the total? If that’s the case no wonder Trump is howling. But there is no way 95% of all new vehicles sold in America are not made here.
Data is from Fred – St Louis Fed
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DAUPSA
Yeah but everywhere I google US domestic auto production it says the US produces between 9 and 10 million a year annually.
So that graph is out by a factor of 10. Unless it means CARS and not vehicles in which case it would make sense since car production is very low since everyone buying trucks/SUVs.
Perhaps the charts merely refer to autos (ie sedans). We produced 1.29 million domestic sedans in 2025 and 8.88 million light duty vehicles (trucks, SUVs, crossovers). As I stated earlier, our domestic industry produces far more light duty vehicles because we have had a 25% tariff in this category since 1964 and only a 2.5% tariff on autos.
Yep, this looks like yet another graph showing some detail of the elephant’s trunk being used to define the whole elephant.
Why not graph how many $ of personal exoskeleton production there have been? (for the next few years, until self-driving cars throw a wrench in to those numbers)
And, what’s with the linearity of the graph? If it were useful and a complete and accurate picture of a dying entity the graph maker wants to show, I’d expect a straight-ish line on a log scale. Or maybe a plunge off a diving board on the right side. Or some signs of chaos and uncertainty.
Maybe the linearity shows the results of steadily rising quality – a picture of cars getting more miles on the odometer before going to that big hydraulic press in the sky.
Is the Golden Age simply delayed, while we get ready for it to exist?
Ex. Trump was certainly correct on EV’s for America. Inner Cities absolutely there is value I would have to agree. Now however we must look at How and Why we use our Vehicles.
Gas is far cheaper, and at 50+ MPG already in existence, GV’s now rival the “Overall” EV Cost (Mining, Rare Earths Used, Environmentally Damaging long term with Batteries, loss of jobs needed, therefore hurting the economy. Minor Accidents can cause Total Collision, of an EV. Can’t produce even close to 100% at home, and some vital parts too.
Inner City Use, but even that is rivaled with the mileage and low cost of gas, and that’s not changing. Electricity will continue to rise with usage, but gas will be cheap and readily available for a long time still, and even longer with EV use around the World.
All this talk on cars, got me thinking outside the box. We could also save money by changing the way Our Government deals with Vehicles. For an example, Our Government “Owns” More Than 4 Million Vehicles! With The Feds Alone Owning over 600,000 of them! Do we Truly Require that many of Vehicles?
I understand the obvious Fire, Police and Daily used for Public Safety and Security, but can we get into other means of managing a lot of the others? Maybe Pool Resources of ANY / ALL Federal Offices that are Located Within A 20? Mile Radius. The Vehicles are kept in a few locations within Parking Garages. Most all drive there own Vehicles to work each day, but when going somewhere Government Related, you drive to the lot pull out the assigned vehicle your authorized to use, with length of time, exact Purpose needed for, and who Authorized it (Signature) to be held accountable for any strange issues that could possibly arise.
Obviously in the rare circumstances where someone must have a federal Vehicle, it must be approved from high up, and that budget of that office pays for it. The person drives it only to work or work locations approved by Signature for accountability purposes and then home. Mileage Always Accounted for Daily, so as checks and balances match up accordingly.
Just one thought on how to cut expenses, but not from a party, or a group of people, but by what makes sense, and for Business Purposes first and foremost. For whom should have one and why, and accountability for everyone that does. It is the Taxpayers Money after all, so in essence It Should Be “Public Information” I think. We need more of this type of accountability, and not less IMO.
I live in the country and commute to work 15 miles each way. It’s 17 miles to the nearest grocery store. I have a Chevy Bolt EV and it’s amazing. I charge is on 120V at night, I can easily charge 40 miles per day. If I got a level 2 charger and 240 service it would fully charge overnight, but I don’t need it now. Driving this vehicle costs me less than half what I was paying for a compact gas car, and where I live the grid is primarily renewable. That car is cheap to run too, just tires, brakes and windshield wiper fluid. No oil changes, transmission fluid, etc. This works for us because we also have a gas truck for longer range trips, but for almost any 2 vehicle family an EV is VERY PRACTICAL. That ‘inner city’ thing is bogus.
– I commute to work 30 miles round trip each day.
> How much does it cost you to Charge It for 40 Miles? How much has you electricity bill increased? Have you had an accident yet? Have you had to pay the Disposal Fee and do all things necessary for removing your power source yet? Have you had to Purchase a New Battery yet? Once you do, then we can have this discussion. We have several GV’s that will cost you around $20 to fill up and get over 50 MPG. Battery last nearly forever, and a replacement is $75. Accident damage on a GV is typically way less than on an EV. In some cases it’s a Total Situation with an EV, but rarely ever with a GV. In fact you can, I have, work on your own GV easily and it’s extremely affordable too. Can you say the same on an EV? What’s your general Maintenance Cost? Monthly, Yearly etc.
– If I got a level 2 charger and 240 service it would fully charge overnight. > What’s Your total cost for an overnight charge, Monthly? 2 of My neighbors have them, and with chargers in there garage. I am curious what you pay? What’s to 240 Vs. 120?
– Driving this vehicle costs me less than half. > Does that take into consideration ALL COST? From purchase, all charges, all electricity new charges (I know), any yearly or regular check ups and expenses, I will be shocked if you say yes, and you’re saving more than half what you were paying…
– where I live the grid is primarily renewable. > Your lucky, as they are scarce still in many places, and charging stations are very expensive, you may wait in lines, and they run out too in places.you truly need one in your home if your not in a city. Very expensive.
– That car is cheap to run too, just tires, brakes and windshield wiper fluid. > Same here.
– No oil changes ( Do myself very cheap and easy) transmission fluid, (Do myself very cheap and easy) etc. This works for us because we also have a gas truck for longer range trips, (Add Cost Of Truck Into The Mix) but for almost any 2 vehicle family an EV is VERY PRACTICAL. That ‘inner city’ thing is bogus. > If you say so, but you’re a rare person to do so. Add everything up, and Electricity especially, and batteries and disposal off said, and you’re not coming out ahead.
Costs for electricity are given in mpge (miles per gallon equivalent). All EVs get over 100 mpge, making them 3-4 times more energy efficient than comparable ICE vehicles. Most homes where folks charge their EVs run off of utilities that use NatGas (nowadays). Natural gas is much cheaper than oil as it has no refining costs and “flows” with increased pressure instead of pumps. Secondly, ICE vehicles are incredibly thermally inefficient. Maybe 24% of the gasoline that gets burned goes to actually propelling the vehicle. The rest is waste heat.
The problem with EVs is the time it takes to recharge a big li-ion battery. That’s not a problem for someone who can just charge overnight. But for other uses it is a total pain in the ass. And they’re not great for the inner city because of that. They’re fabulous for suburbia though. That’s the key market.
The New York silver spooner playboy is an economic illiterate- actually make that totally illiterate.
The morons who voted for him thinking he’s a good businessman because he was on tv and puts his name on buildings using other people’s money are getting what they deserve
If he were a good businessman, he would have turned his $200m from daddy in 70s into 100b. Just investing it in the S&P would have yielded $60b. Instead he’s functionally bankrupt so he’s playing politics and using the govt to line his pockets, while the morons cheer him on
Magtards need to get it through their heads that he’s an idiot and face their misjudgment so we can move on
Only an idiot hasn’t figured out that the Tramp it’s an idiot.
Since the IQ of half the population is below 100 by definition, half the population is closer to idiots than smarts. The severe cases wear MAGA hats.
Were in a spot. Companies produce goods where they have the resources infrastructure and labor to make a profit. . There is a whole world full of poor people who will work harder for less. The infrastructure is getting built out in those areas.
The results will be to pull high income countries wages down while raising poor nations.
Seems to me we should focus on jobs we have the advantage and let the rest slide. Instead of yrying to recreate the 50s.
Not everyone in the US can perform those jobs where the US has an advantage. That’s the main reason poverty and welfare fraud have been growing the past 30-40 years.
Additionally, monopolies (whether by a company or a nation) will eventually form. These stifle creativity and competition. Monopolies can hold people and nations hostage for basic life necessities.
There is no utopian solution because life is so complex that everything can’t be maximized simultaneously.
True there are support roles.
That’s exactly what we have been doing for most of the last 200 years. Witness how we have been leading the world in every successive “phase” of the economy. Infrastructure, industrialization, energy, education, transportation, telecommunications, computers, internet.
The problem is that many of those “systems” that used to be our advantage, are now aging and becoming a disadvantage as the world keeps progressing and passing us by.
Today’s world is focused on the electro-economy where the focus is on massive amounts of new electricity production, primarily from cheap renewables, electrifying as much if the economy as possible, tech, and AI.
The winners will those who embrace the future, rather than fight it.
Thats pretty much what i was trying to say. Well said
Not 200 years, but less than 100 years with telecommunications when the U.S. turned from follower to leader in transformative sectors.
Somewhat misleading charts, as the preference for SUV’s and light trucks has steadily risen over the entire timeframe shown.
Those charts include suvs and trucks.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DAUPSA
Papa Dave: In 2025, the US auto industry produced 8.88 million “light duty trucks”, and just 1.29 millions “autos”. This reflects the historic difference between 25% truck tariffs and the much smaller 2.5% auto tariffs over the last 60 years. US auto production has declined dramatically over that time period because it is uncompetitive with 2.5% tariffs.
Wrong.
I take that back. It does appear to represent just autos. Good catch.
The Golden age of pure nonsense and bullshit. Have we EVER seen such crap in our lives?
Agent Krasnov strikes again.
“You will own nothing and be happy. Or else.”
Detroit Automakers Take $50 Billion Hit as EV Bubble Burstshttps://archive.is/V6ls0#selection-2179.0-2179.59
Besides the production numbers, I would also be looking at sales for 2025. Many car companies, both foreign & domestic, increased their sales volumes in 2025. Foreign cars still remain quite popular. US pick-up trucks also did well. It will be interesting to see how 2026 shakes out. I am seeing lots of incentives from local dealers to move inventory. I think many consumers are broke.
Who Won—and Who Didn’t—in 2025 US Auto Sales
I made an unserious comment below.
But seriously, when it comes to transportation in the US; autos (and trucks), roads and oil have (I believe) and still do receive large govt subsidies while trains, boats, planes, buses, bikes and other means of transportation have received far less.
In other countries (and continents) rail and boats are supported by govts (see Europe, China, Japan, Russia etc etc) and it seems to me that this hurts the US transportation abilities. I wish I knew what the actual amounts were for US govt subsidies for roads, fuels, traffic lights/signs and policing, auto manufacturing and the amounts for trains, airports, buses, boats (and other alternate transportation forms) as I am guessing we could have more transportation that worked better for everyone if the options all had fair subsidies.
I’m gonna guess we have Henry Ford to thank for the imbalance I believe exists.
Look uo the definition of plutocracy
The “golden age of US auto production” had the republican leader ignorant and in diapers.
It’s your job to figure out when this was.
Since the GM bailout, but really we should take the story back to the Chrysler bailout, I’ve been thinking/suggesting that the automobile industry, as we currently recognize it here in the U.S et al, is a dead man walking. We need to be reconfiguring as the current business model is on course to sputter out & die & times a wasting. I was just reading an Elon Musk post about massive solar energy buildouts, that ain’t happening either due to the constraints were up against. Across the board our current mindset on how to proceed looking into the future is seriously flawed, there’s a lot of flowery rhetoric out there but it is devoid of intelligence & sanity imho.
It is idiotic to think that tariffs will bring manufacturing of vehicles back to the US. It is quite clear that the opposite has happened over time.
The best example of this is the “chicken tax”. A 25% tariff that the US placed on light duty truck imports in 1964 and is still in place today. Light duty trucks includes pickup trucks, SUVs, crossovers etc. In other words, everything except traditional sedans.
In 2025, the US auto industry produced 8.88 million “light duty trucks”, and just 1.29 millions “autos”. This reflects the historic difference between 25% truck tariffs and the much smaller 2.5% auto tariffs over the last 60 years. US auto production has declined dramatically over that time period because it is uncompetitive with 2.5% tariffs.
This 25% truck tariff is the only reason the majority of US vehicle production still exists today. But it has NOT made the industry competitive. It has only protected their inefficiencies and high costs and raised the prices of vehicles for American consumers. Without the 25% truck tariff, truck sales would have declined as fast as auto sales. They have still declined, but not as fast.
Which is why overall domestic vehicle production has been declining as shown in the charts. Tariffs are not helping the industry in the long run. They are merely perpetuating the inefficiencies that exist, and reducing the incentives to become more efficient and competitive.
The longer we “protect” with tariffs the less competitive we become over time. Tariffs are a self-defeating policy.
thanks papa for explaining such complicated topics, in a clear and understandable way without writing a novel
I do my best. I also try to be efficient with my time.
As well as the advantage of higher tariffs, the US based build of the light ruck category have a further protection. Foreign manufacturers are highly dependent on the US market, as the category isn’t very popular in other countries. So safer to build in the US
Not to mention that 100% tariffs on Honda or Toyota would bring its total cost of ownership to par with domestic makes. Even so, I’d still refuse to buy domestic, because I value my time not on the side of the road.
Railroads where they make sense
We already have all the railroads that make sense.
Our freight railroads need upgrades and maintenance and our Intercity passenger rail is actually 3rd world. A lot of tracks are abandoned and need to be re-used
That would be the reason I’m almost totally against “Rails to Trails”! forfeiting easements is one of the stupidest things government entities could ever do, most completely ignorant of what it takes to negotiate easements in today’s environment – even in those instances where imminent domain is applied the cost/effort is exorbitant “Thus, the government does not forfeit its easement in a legal sense, but its ability to retain or repurpose the corridor is subject to constitutional limits.
If the landowner holds a reversionary interest (because the easement was not a fee), the government must pay just compensation for the taking” The best & the brightest are not at the helm!
Thank you rails to trails is yuppy bullcrap
Ripping up reuseable tracks is brain dead and will bite us in the ass when the oil runs low
Urban areas
Heavy investments in automobiles is looking backwards and electric/battery cars will not work with our power grids
The way to go is rebuilding our freight and passenger railroads
Maintain what we have and build where it is possible
Trolleys or light rail in densely packed ur an areas
This regime is the servant of big business especially in oil natural gas and coal industries
That California High Speed Rail is progressing nicely. You might be able to travel from Bakersfield to Merced by the year 2095. If wishing to travel from LA to San Francisco, please add a few more decades to finish the promised original route.
I am not a democrat I am independent I did not say that I was in favor of high speed rail
the morons in amerika think in blue v red pom pom girl mentality. no wonder half the HS grads in amerika are basically idiots.
Actually more Americans are independents like me
Regarding California I am assuming there is incompetence greed stupidity and corruption gumming it up
To Finish, or to have a Finish Date thrown out there? It’s ridiculous…
Americans are way, way too selfish and ill behaved for anything like that to work
Not all of us
At least 1/3 of us, and that’s enough to make it intolerable for the rest.
Kind of like what’s going on at a national scale.
Most of the people I deal with are not left nor right wing but are independent. Political parties serve themselves not the citizenry but at the current time most republicans are blindly following trump
Light rail is working in some metropolitan areas in the US
Not all Americans are selfish ignorant dingalings
Seattle
Yes been there and it works well there and also been to Portland and light rail very good there
Meanwhile our large Gm plant here has shutdown to retool for the volt. A pos electric bag of crap on 4 wheels no one wants. Bet they will endorse dems.
Electric/battery cars are a waste of time and our energy
We have technology that works on land and it is Railroads
Yes. Railroads are more efficient than trucks. Which is why they transport 40% of all goods in America. But they cannot do the last mile delivery, which is why we still need trucks. And, unfortunately, our trains still use low speed, archaic, and inefficient tech.
China understands this. Which is why they have built over 25,000 miles of high speed electric train tracks in the last two decades that put our old system to shame.
China can do that because the government owns most of the land. Here in America very little land is publicly owned so obtaining rights to lay high speed rail anywhere would cost a fortune if it could even be done.
Also population density in the US is fraction of that in China. Rail only makes sense in the Boston to Washington corridor.
Correct. Our existing rail system, much of which was built between 1850 and 1920, puts us at a big competitive disadvantage, preventing us from further developing as a modern electro-economy. The same goes for the majority of our “modern” electrical grid which was built between 1950 and 1980.
In fact, most of our existing infrastructure (roads, water and sewer systems, air traffic control ,etc) which gave us a tremendous economic advantage in the 20th century, is long past its best before date, and is now an albatross around our economy, preventing us from properly competing in today’s world.
Our oil refineries were built to process a type of oil we barely produce any longer. And Trump would rather promote dirty old coal than cheaper, cleaner renewables.
Right on Papa Dave we need massive infrastructure building and maintenance and it gives our workers good jobs
U make some good points but there are a lot of abandoned train tracks that can be repaired
Thank you Papa Dave I am not against trucking the local deliveries
I am not a fan of high speed rail
take a train from downtown madrid to downtown barcelona. like night and day compared to the amtrak i take from midtown nyc up the hudson river………
I agree we need to improve and upgrade Amtrak! That Hudson train route good example of needing investments in infrastructure
Interesting. Why not high speed rail? It’s far more efficient.
Too expensive too complicated
In the US, yes, I agree for multiple reasons. However, technically, it can be done, much like in other countries, if we simply made it a political priority including all levels of government and both political parties.
And until we do, we are destined to fall further behind on a competitive basis.
Yupp mass transit via railroads is the way to go and long distance freight on railroads also. Both parties are not pushing this at all but real change comes from our citizens
True. If built by Americans.
Which goes to show just how the speculative financialized American economy is riddled with grift, corruption, and inefficiency at every layer.
This massive undertaking would produce jobs building railroads trains tracks trolleys then jobs in maintenance repair construction plus reducing pollution and our dependence on oil and rail is environmentally and economically efficient
Not the Volt, the Bolt. Big difference. Two completely different cars.
I drive a Bolt. It’s the nicest car I’ve ever driven. It’s a 2020, I bought it in 2024 with 16k miles on it for $18k after a EV rebate. So it was super affordable. Heated leather seats, Bose sound system, great torque, silent cabin. I can’t imagine going back to an ICE.
GM has a winner with the Bolt. The 2027 is set to start at under $30k. The competition is going to be Chinese EVs. Ford’s mistake was trying to price EV’s like luxury items. They are not, they are simpler than ICE’s and they make amazing daily commuters. It’s such a wonderful step up from ICE’s.
how many miles can you put on one of those?
250k+ anyway, judging off Bolts that have been around a while.
If you’re asking about range, it’s around 250 miles. My commute is about 30 miles round trip. I keep mine between 20% and 85% battery charge because it’s most efficient in that range and easiest on the battery. Once or twice a week I plug it in when I get home and the next morning it’s ready to go.
Looking into the future I’m excited for newer battery tech with sodium-ion batteries and newer solid battery tech. It’s disturbing & frustrating to watch the Chinese tech pull ahead of America while Americans parrot disinformation about EVs being a bad idea. They’re not, they’re the future, and America is falling behind. https://insideevs.com/news/786509/catl-changan-worlds-first-sodium-ion-battery-ev/
Trains Tracks Trolleys Railroads is the way to go good for jobs the economy reduces oil consumption good for the environment
Wishful thinking at best, at least for Intercity rail. But we remain culturally allergic to non- urban mass transit. Americans will not embrace intra-city mass transit until it’s free. The convenience and time saving from driving from point a to b has a value. Blacksburg, VA (economically dominated by Virginia Tech) has free busses, and yet cars still abound. If free busses cannot penetrate, light rail has almost no chance. (A bus can handle a detour)
I am not advocating for buses and there are areas where light rail works example city subway or light rail in Newark NJ
Since Blacksburg is in the mountains, light rail may not be practical.
IMO the majority of US taxpayers don’t have excess funds to tap into for a project like this.