In reply to:


What defines an SUV? Bigness. Four wheel drive. An upright (tall) body design. Ruggedness (even if it is just the appearance of ruggedness). Power.



In one word?

Marketing


In reply to:


None of these things is conducive to economical operation. If you "fundamentally redesign" the vehicle to overcome these shortcomings, you will no longer have an SUV, at least not an SUV as most buyers would define it.



None of these things you mention are mutually exclusive with better MPG and lower emissions per mile from any vehicle including a SUV - provided that the findamental design is sound.

As far as power goes there's lots of options besides 3 hundred cubic inch or whatever V8 engines to drive you forward with the same responsiveness.

It could simply be that Detroit simply puts a high-performance Diesel engine under the hood, and couples it with an hybridised drive train so that when the power isn't needed its not burning loads of fuel and when its needed, the diesel kicks in quickly and keeps the rest - the 4WD, the hi body design, the supposed "ruggedness" and yes, even power.

As far as acceleration goes, you won't beat a electric drive train for that - ever been in a modern electric passenger train (the Accela? one is probably the best known US example).

The acceleration is pretty good - not too different than sitting in a high powered carwith the foot being planted - proably better than an average SUV has now.

And of course, with electric drives you get options like regenerative braking so that when you slow down, the energy normally wasted via brakes) in slowing down the vehicle quickly is captured and stored in electric cells so that the next time you need to accelerate - like when the lights change, you can get moving quickly before the engine has to even increase its revs again - its been idling the whole time - that will save lots of fuel and increase your MPG no end.

Maybe one day, we will all have direct conversion fuel cells and that will be a lot better again - no noisy engine under the hood for a start and clean smooth electric traction all the way.

Maybe those vehicles won't be called SUVs - personally whether its called a SUV, Light Truck, LT:NG or whatever doesn't matter - its still a SUV by "nature" and marketing.