Should They Drop The Price Of Electric Cars To $0?
Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from The Wall Street Journal, Speedhunters, and Foreign Policy.
To Spark Buyers for Electric Cars, Drop the Price to Nearly $0 – The Wall Street Journal
While incentives for electric cars may not be quite as nice as Elon Musk will have you believe, there's still a considerable amount of incentives to be had. Joe White argues that we're not far from the point where we're discounting the cars to nearly free... with some lifestyle costs. If I were in California I'd have probably already a leased a Fiat 500e, to be honest. Plus free rental cars!
Fiat SpA's U.S. sales arm is offering 12 days of free annual access to a gasoline rental car, for long-distance trips, as part of the cost of its new 500e electric (starting price: $32,500). Matt Davis of Fiat USA says the rental-car deal, branded as ePass, grew out of brainstorming sessions where company officials debated how to deal with the car's 87-mile range. "We have nothing to overcome that," he says.
WAR SCARE: The real-life war game that almost led to nuclear armageddon. – Foreign Policy
Hey, remember that time we almost got into nuclear war over a misunderstanding with the Soviets? No... the other time. It was just like Sum Of All Fears but without Ben Affleck randomly fighting a neo-Nazi in Baltimore.
Despite the ramifications of this possible nuclear miscalculation, the history of the Able Archer 83 war scare has remained largely unavailable to the public. This dearth of primary sources has even led critics — with some justification — to describe the study of the war scare as "an echo chamber of inadequate research and misguided analysis" and "circle reference dependency," with an overreliance upon "the same scanty evidence."
ROBBY GORDON’S STADIUM SUPER TRUCKS – Speedhunters
If a racing event happens and Larry Chen isn't there to photograph it does it really happen? Here's his take on Stadium Super Trucks.
There is something special about an object in the air that is not meant to fly. It kind of reminds me of when I ask people to jump up in the air so I can capture that split second of them floating. I just love looking at their faces, because all they are thinking about is landing that jump, nothing else. So they make a funny face.
Photo Credit: Getty, Larry Chen, Fiat