[hbossy]

I think it's just coming from experience. They remember how every past attempt at making cars eco-friendly eventually resulted in worse personal experience via taxes, prices and worse repairability, so any new one gets a "no" by default.

[natmaka]

This. And this is generic: since the first oil shock (50 years ago) many Western nations were nearly always bathing into some economic crisis, therefore many think that experience shows that any attempt, on any front, leads to a new downturn.

It also seems true when it comes to innovation: an innovation today becomes/creates a problem tomorrow.