Whither the SUV?

GM and other automakers are counting on the hydrogen fuel cell to save the SUV--and to preserve the fat profit margins that the big vehicles have generated. And not that it's necessarily motivating the industry, but it may well be that producing better, more fuel-efficient SUVs would do as much to protect the environment as eliminating them. Transportation efficiency consultant Steven Plotkin, a former engineer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and analyst for the now-defunct federal Office of Technology Assessment, made such an argument in the November 2004 issue of Environment, a scientific journal. Plotkin calculated that if the nation's 24 million SUVs were replaced with mid-sized cars and station wagons, which can carry about as many people and as much cargo, total U.S. fuel consumption would be cut by only 4%, which works out to a gain of 0.9 mile per gallon in average fuel efficiency. A switch to minivans would produce an even more measly gain in fuel conservation, Plotkin noted. Considering that someone used to lugging groceries or recreational equipment or children in a Toyota Sequoia with 127 cubic feet of storage space probably wouldn't trade down to a two-door hatchback, Plotkin might have a point.

In Santa Monica, Luke MacFarlane says he's not asking for much from his dream SUV. In case automakers are listening: "I'd want it to get 40 miles to the gallon, not just 30. But I do want to be able to handle a bumpy road without destroying the car, and I'd like a powerful engine. And I do like the luxury of leather."