Gas Suburban small v8 is 15/20, which is better than the 88, but still abysmal in general. Previous year Toyota Sequoia (more comparable than a cruiser), got a combined 15mpg, which is what I generally get in a decade old Tundra. The 23 models from Toyota have a hybrid with a turbo and are rated 21/24, which is still pretty bad. I'd personally love an electric truck, but I don't have 80k sitting around for one at the moment.
While the wrenching crowd still has some time, I do wonder how long gas vehicles will be a viable option. A gas station near me just got razed, my wife has an EV, and at some point it won't be profitable to maintain all the gas stations we have.
Where I grew up my parents had their own 300 gallon gas tank, because you couldn't buy gas for many miles around. Nowadays not even sure how possible that is in some areas, as I am sure there is more regulation. Several of the filling stations around at the time also went out of business as they had to mitigate the leaks from underground tanks. There will be a point where it starts to become quite onerous to own a gas vehicle, just not sure when that point is.
Well I can replace your anecdote with mine as there are new gas stations being built all around me because I am in a Growing population zone, with suburban sprawl and lots of economic activity where using a car is required.
In metro's, or states / cities with net population loss I can see where service businesses of all type including gas stations would start ceasing operations as profitability drops
In my area not only are new stations being built many of them are putting in Fast Chargers for BEV's so the idea that the filling station model will just go under is premature as well, they will adapt. Fuel is the least profitable item they sell anyway, they make money on the convince store and or food. In many ways the longer charging times for DC Fast charging could be a boom for the convenience stores that adapt to having something for people to look at and buy while their car is charging. I.e Good Clean Bathroom, Well stocked food / snacks, maybe a game room, etc
Even then most stations are multi fuel, so the have Gas, Diesel, Kerosene, some even have propane or natgas. I think we will see more stations expand on that model as well.
even if the everyday car goes BEV, Diesel Trucks are not going away anytime soon so they will still need stations.
So lets do some math, The largest and most popular US Manufacture of Vehicles, Ford as a target of 40% of sales to be BEV by 2030, some EU manufacturers want to go all BEV by 2030 which I thing is aggressive and likely will not happen.
But lets say Ford target is correct and 40-50% of Vehicle sold in 2030 will be BEV's. Modern gas cars due to their complexity have a shorter economic / serviceable life to around 15 years. So cars sold in 2030 are going to be on the road still in 2045. So that is 2 decades and we are only at 50% reduction in Gas cars. Given the other factors above I dont that that would translate to a 50% reduction in Filling station, probably more like 10-15% as they adapt to BEV and expand into other offerings
While the wrenching crowd still has some time, I do wonder how long gas vehicles will be a viable option. A gas station near me just got razed, my wife has an EV, and at some point it won't be profitable to maintain all the gas stations we have.