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The correct strategy would have been to basically within 10 years of the release of the insight and the Prius, to mandate hybrid electric vehicles for all consumer vehicles, and 20 years after they, phevs.

You may be technically right because our policy is idiotic, and the chances of this happening unde the bush administration was zero.

But don't pretend this is some optimal engineering formula you've reduced in an economic journal.

Similarly, you should not pretend this strategy you've posted above is some optimal engineering formula you've reduced in an economic journal. There are many roadblocks to consider before mandating all vehicles go electric, not least among them being an electrical grid which simply cannot handle this level of energy, a lack of access to enough lithium, or tax considerations for vehicles no longer contributing to highways (while creating an order of magnitude more damage) because they don't buy gas.
You didn't address GP's proposed policy. Hybrids and PHEVs need a lot less lithium than full EVs. The electrical grid can already handle off peak charging of many more EVs than are on the road today. It's straightforward to replace gasoline taxes with electricity taxes and car registration fees, which could also vary by weight, but many states are going further and implementing road usage fees, which can be done by reporting odometer readings.
They do need a lot less lithium, but we have like 300M cars in the US and only 4M EVs, so unless it's using, like, an ounce of lithium, you'll still have massive sourcing problems.

It's also not straightforward (in the US at least) to replace gas taxes with electricity taxes. Electricity is a utility, while gasoline is a good. You can tax goods very easily. Taxing utilities, especially when it comes to "I'm only taxing THIS type of electricity tax" directly violates utility carrier regulations. We had a whole argument over net neutrality, and the foundation of the argument was literally "could you imagine if we charged electricity this way??"

So maybe you could do it with registration fees, but that's going to be MUCH harder on lower-income people. It's simple to pay a $.15 tax on your gas tank. It's very difficult to pay an extra $75 on your registration.

The Prius was lead acod. Phevs are not a massive draw.

You're throwing out the EV fud list straight from the oil companies. You either don't understand hybrid vs Phev vs EV or are being mendacious

No, I'm just showing it's not an economic journal-level idea