What's with people in the States and big cars? I still don't get it. Good thing we still don't have European gas prices 'cause otherwise we'd be really f*cked. And when are diesel engines going to start picking up like in Europe? More than half of their cars sold now are diesel, and definitely not as slow and loud as old diesel engines used to be.

Trust me.. not everyone likes big cars.. I drive a vw superbeetle from the 70's and a versa.. Personally I wanted a diesel really bad when I bought my versa.. Just VW stop making them because of the super high EPA regs and I couldn't find a decently priced used one.. Lots of people have small cars its just Detroit still doesn't get it..

With the price of diesel almost 1$ over regular unleaded it is a tough sale to show a need for more diesel engines. Diesel is more efficient but juggling the mpg vs extra cost it almost evens out. I drive a large vehicle mostly to pull my boat, motorcycle trailer, and picking up large purchases. I drive a small Saab 900 4 cylinder convertible for daily use. I think the problem is when people use large cars everyday as their main form of transportation. Having a large vehicle for specific purposes seems fine to me.
I also have a 250cc Honda scooter and wish more people in America owned them. I would ride my scooter more often but it is dangerous with so many large cars. People who drive small cars are also at greater risk of dying in a car accident when they are hit by a large suv. This is another reason why many people do not want to give up their larger vehicles.

In my opinion, this is a very good move. The biggest, most gas guzzling vehicles should be made more efficient (whether that is deisel, gas-electric, or whatever) before the small ones.

20/21 versus 12/18 is a huge fractional umprovement for city mileage. The 2008 camry for example is 19/28 (V6) and its hybrid equivelant gets 33/34. That is also a great improvement but see below.

So on a theoretical 1000 mile month in the city you save 83-50=33 gallons with the escalade, and 53-30=23 gallons with the camry. So wouldn't reducing the consumption of the largest vehicles first make most sense? Al consider that the hybrid escalade is rated better in the city than the non-hybrid camry.

On the flip side, given there are many more Camry's than Escalades out there would petition for making the Camry more efficient before the Escalade. Either way progress like this is good.

Fail

It would be great if every model of every car was available in a hybrid version, but it won't be happening for a while yet.

A $3600 price difference would let you drive a non-hybrid model for 3 years with $3600 in free gas. Yet in that time the hybrid would depreciate, and probably need 5 or more years to make up for the price to break even.

Smart man doesn't buy a new hybrid. Smart man will buy a used hybrid at the same price as a new non-hybrid and get better mpg.