Some devices in a car are still pretty power hungry. Eg. The blower motor for the fan (typically 800 watts = 70 amps @12v). Heated rear screen (240 watts = 20

Some devices in a car are still pretty power hungry. Eg. The blower motor for the fan (typically 800 watts = 70 amps @12v). Heated rear screen (240 watts = 20 amps). Window motors are pretty powerful too. End result is you need a lot of fairly chunky cables to power those things. And the price of copper has been steadily climbing since 1960 - unlike other commodities which have been getting easier and easier to extract with more automation in mines.