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Conspicuous Conservation, the ostentatious display of objects that mark a person as eco-friendly, has become popular over the recent decade, with example of wealthy people making a point of being seen driving a Prius, putting solar panes in silly places and even wearing shoes "suggesting" you worked on the BP oil spill cleanup.
On the opposite side of the coin we are starting to see some rather deplorable examples of Conspicuous Pollution, the most flagrant of which is called "Rollin Coal".
These kids, (they are almost always 20 something rural guys) will spend anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 modifying their pickups for the sole purpose of belching huge clouds of black exhaust; adding smoke stacks and smoke switches (which either trick the engine into thinking it needs more fuel, or dump diesel fuel directly into the exhaust manifold).
This is not just a handful of guys. Elizabeth Kulze posted an article with links to “an entire subculture” on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram. “It’s just fun,” one coal roller says. “Just driving and blowing smoke and having a good time.”
(Score: -1, Troll) by Username on Monday August 25 2014, @09:05AM
The problem with ecologically friendly autos is that they’re directly marketed to hippies, who are generally more likely to be smug assholes who drive five under the speed limit just so others will notice they’re being green.
If they truly wanted hybrids and electrics to go mainstream they need to cut out the dumb tree power indicators and other such crap, and make the vehicle look utilitarian. Make a nice electric truck with duals in the back and some heavy lead acid batteries so you can tow and brake with it. Market it to farmers. Unlike what most people think farmers are rich. The average combine/tractor costs millions. It wouldn’t bother them to spend a good 100k on a truck that could pretty much tow anything since electric has so much torque. Once you get into that market, the rednecks will follow.
Hell, make a nice diesel-electric tractor.
(Score: 2, Informative) by KingofBLASH on Monday August 25 2014, @09:28AM
Farmers are not really rich in the sense of the word you're using. Often their land will be worth many millions. And, indeed, the revenues from their farm may be HUGE. But they also have huge costs, and their bottom line tends to be small.
(Although, agreed if there was a truck that was an electric hybrid that saved them money, even with a big expense up front, they might jump on it)
(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Monday August 25 2014, @11:33AM
Agreed, Farmers, At least where I'm from, aren't that different from people buying houses. They aren't super rich, but justify spending a lot of money on a tractor with a bunch of bells and whistles, because it's for work, and drive themselves into huge debts. Like people buying super expensive McMansions they can't afford.
The farmer that owned the land behind my in-laws place had a tractor that he'd drive around the field once then he'd kick back and the tractor, literally, did the rest of the work for him. It was basically a giant self-driving lawnmower [wikipedia.org] he'd use two days in a row twice a year. Unfortunately it cost him his land. I guess he didn't realize when you borrow money from the bank, and use your land as collateral, and then can't pay them, because all you're doing is cutting fricken hay, the bank comes and takes your land away and sells it to someone else.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @10:09PM
I would get a diesel-electric truck in a hot minute. Or even stirling-electric.
The truck is then my genset wherever I go on the land. Need to drill a hole? Plug in the drill. Need a spotlight where I'm helping birth animals? Click. Radio? Click. Laptop running down? Click. Circular saw? Click.
Add to that huge torque from dead rest with integrated traction control at every wheel, ability to crawl all day without getting sulky, idle at 0MPG ... folks, this is very close to truck heaven in my book. Give it a 25 mile battery so that I can limp home if I need to, and I can plug it in for a charge at night, and run for a while without touching the engine, and it's near perfect.
The part where I have to disagree with you is how rich farmers are. Yes, some farming corporations are wealthy, but farmers are typically land rich and cash poor. Just because my nominal net worth is high doesn't mean that I can tap it. (Oh, and it's not all that high.)