imho the 2020’s are going to be another golden age of automobiles like the 1950’s and 1960’s. Why? There are going to be two kinds of cars; electric and internal combustion engine cars. With maybe a third hydrogen powered cars coming in later. the competition between the systems will force down prices broadly while increasing fuel efficiency. The quality of the workmanship will necessarily increase—because of competition— so the working lives of the cars will go over 200k. (Remember electric cars may currently have bugs but when the bugs are got out—their fewer parts will mean much less maintenance. Internal combustion cars will have to get better to compete. Plus the tools available to turn style ideas into working models will just be astounding. They’re already amazing.
I always hear people saying “they don’t make cars like they used to” and I’m glad they don’t.
I think it’s unlikely the government will allow the free market to work like that - though they should. Call me a cynic but I think some congressional committee will weigh the bribes and decide what technology we should all live with for the next fifty or so years and that will be that.
hydrogen cars are total losers economically and energy efficiency:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_vehicle
“As of 2014, 95% of hydrogen is made from natural gas. It can be produced using renewable sources, but that is an expensive process.[3] Integrated wind-to-hydrogen (power to gas) plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with hydrogen production using natural gas.[4] The drawbacks of hydrogen use are high carbon emissions intensity when produced from natural gas, capital cost burden, low energy content per unit volume, production and compression of hydrogen, and the large investment in infrastructure that would be required to fuel vehicles.”
As for hydrogen - check Lakehurst, N.J. - the Hindenburg. Oh I know, I would like to see hydrogen used as an auto fuel also... but not by smokers teenagers, hold-up men - those sorts. I look at Star Wars, the capitol city, all those neat rows of flying vehicles all in good order — and I know it is a galaxy far far away!