Leasing si NOT ending, the INCENTIVES for leasing is ending. GM is no longer going to subsidize lease rates. Leasing was popular because the cost of cars was rising faster than the income rates. Now costs are dropping and incomes are still rising making purchasing a better bet for incentives.

You can still lease cars, but the RATE will be market driven and not subsidized.

Nobody sells very many of them. Not Toyota, Not Nissan, Not VW, Not Honda and GM and Ford will not either.

I suspect most Americans will consider the next models up the size scale. The Cruze Corrola, Civic, Focus type vehicles. But the real market is one size up from that bunch and two sizes up from these micros. The Accord, Camry, Malibu, Altima, Fusion, Sebring family sedans are the volumeleaders of the sedan market. When an Accord sized vehicles is achieving 30-40 mpg as that family will soon do, who really wants something smaller, for more mileage. Volts’ wil be in the Cruze sized group of cars like the Civic and Corolla and it will get to over 100mpge, so who cares about mileage then?

Tune the motor to run at its most efficient rpm, and leave it there, rather than have it range from 1500-6000 rpm. Think that’ll help? Then, disconnect the gas motor from the drive train, and let the electric motor (which has 100% torque at 0 rpm, unlike ICEs) fill that gap. Pad the difference with high-capicity capacitors or batteries, and you’ll have an efficient vehicle.

I’m a right-wing nut, and I drive a 1986 Mazda pickup that I converted to battery electric. It’ll go 70mph, with a range of 30 miles (higher, if I slow down).

It wasn’t cheap (about $8,000), but then, if every salvage yard had controllers and electric motors on even 1/4 the cars, it wouldn’t cost nearly as much… I’d be able to rebuild/convert nearly any vehicle from parts in the salvage yard.

Where is the American Ingenuity? Its been outsourced and regulated out of business.