But sales have held surprisingly strong. That would certainly extend the life of an aging platform. Why stop unless forced into stopping? If you look back historically auto maker are normally forced by either poor sales, or safety/emissions regulations to make radical changes. If sales are brisk and theyre in compliance, theyre not going to stop milking the cash cow. If you knew your business was being forced to reorganize in 2 years, would it make any sense at all to throw away virtually free money until then? As long as youre not inhibiting the new product/business structure anyway...
Good debate either way.
Excellent points. Actually, I think conceptually we are on the same page. The point we may diverge on is timing. Sure, keep milking the cow, but I guess I'm saying the cow may already be earmarked for steaks but we just don't know it yet.
I think new tightenings are likely coming much sooner than some might imagine given the US' clear shift back towards a global green economy. Given that, I'm expecting to see strong disincentives (CAFE tightening, California-style++ national emission standards) as it relates to doing things the old way (heavy carbon emitters, and yep, supercharged v8s are in that bin). I also think this will be simultaneously married with new corporate and consumer green incentives (subsidies, tax credits, carbon credits, etc). My bet is that both of these "carrots" and "sticks" are already in the pipeline but haven't been made "official" yet. Of course, it's too late for the 2021 production cycle but it would not surprise me if 2022 marks the last year we see a US production supercharged V8 car sold. There may be an exception or two based on projects close to completion (eg special one-off Corvette, etc). But even then, I'd bet that any hypothetical all-ICE new HP project would be released in 2022 or not at all.
Then again I could be completely wet. It wouldn't be the first time!
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