[P-40]

if these start-ups can produce an ecologically sound yet fun car that aims itself at conservatives

It is strange but there is an almost perfect split between the market for these 'alternative' vehicles that will succeed and those that will fail...and if the 'street-legal' aspect has not been settled I can make the following financial prediction. If the Republicans stay in some degree of power, the alternative vehicles that the majority of the population, no matter what their political beliefs, will buy will be those vehicles that look normal and/or are performance vehicles. If the Democrats take more control, those vehicles that will never sell, and their union buddies will love to see fail, will take the (temporary) lead.

[the anti-liberal]

Agree. The Prissy Pius is all about emotion, Liberals are all about emotion. Liberal fervor will rule the day, the pious ones will buy - not with reason - but with religious (in the Liberal sense) fervor.

Those who are apolitical will likely buy out of some vague felt sense of political correctness or a vague sense of feeling threatened to buy for the good of the planet of some such.

Why Conservatives and otherwise intelligent folks might buy, I don't know. Television and advertising probably. I haven't watched television in years but I remember what it was like - to be constantly bombarded with products you can't possibly lead a normal life without, that you will never feel fulfilled, a whole human being, if you don't have this in your garage or that in your closet or these in your toilet, etc.