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None of these things you mention are mutually exclusive with better MPG and lower emissions per mile from any vehicle



Bigger = heavier.

Taller = more wind drag (and on the highway that's where at least 80% of your fuel goes!)

4WD = more mechanical drive. That's why a 4WD truck will get about 25% less fuel mileage than the identical 2Wd model.

Power = tanstaafl. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.



You have shown perfectly why SUVs are such gas guzzlers - its like trying to make a brick to fly sideways to get a SUV to move through air at high speed and thats going to take a lot of energy to do it no matter what you try.

The 4WD thng has been proven to be less of a problem now since they use more "car" like 4WD mechanisms, not designed for so much off road work.

And of course with anything, tanstaafl applies, so you can only get out what you put in so to a certain exten you need a decent power plant to make it go.

But it does *not* have to be a honking great 300+-cubic-inch-V8-gas-guzzling-solid-cast-iron-engine-block power plant to do so - the Japs [and Europeans] are doing it now, so Detroit could too if it really wanted - and thats the rub, they don't because they make too much money from selling the old technology crap to be bothered with the new technology crap that they make less money on.

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Regenerative braking is a nice idea in theory, but it's not ready for prime time yet.

Or maybe it is? Doesn't the Honda Insight use it? Don't recall now
... But regenerative braking is only advantageous in a stop and go situation.



Yes, but isn't that *exactly* the sort of environment where 80% of SUVs end up now - stop and go traffic in a urban area and hardly getting over 35 or whatever MPH most of the time?

And stop go urban traffic is where the already abysmal MPG figures really take a hammering and where things like regenerative braking really come into play to help that out.

Yeah maybe RB is not ready for the prime-time yet, but will be by the time Detroit gets around to releasing a Hybrid SUV.

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Get that hybrid SUV out on the interestate pushing that "sleek" .65 cd body through the air at 75 MPH and spinning all those axles, constant velocity joints, drive shafts, differentials and transfer cases merrily along -- I don't care if it's a diesel, a hybrid, a gasoline-only, or any combination thereof -- it is going to burn a lot more fuel than an "automobile" (mini-van or station wagon) of comparable capacity.



Don't disagree, but *when* was the last time you actually saw a SUV doing 75 MPH?

And more to the point, if you did see one doing that speed, I say keep well clear of it, because they must be finding it pretty hard to control at that speed - and if anything goes wrong, rollover or worse here we come.