You save more fuel switching from a 15 to 18 mpg car than you can switching from a 50 to 100 mpg car.

So, we should stop trying to design a techno-magic "car for the future." It really won’t end our oil addiction or save us from climate change. That’s right: no more HyperCar and no more FreedomCar. At least not until we’ve done the dull and unsexy work of boosting fuel economy at the bottom of the fleet, where it matters far, far, far more.

The real fix for oil addiction isn’t exciting, and it doesn’t lend itself to massive research investments. We just need to do stuff that we already know how to do. So here’s my new policy proposal. While CAFE standards (fleet averages) are groovy, what we really need to do is simply outlaw vehicles that get below, say, 15 or 18 mpg.