which is great, but the hybrid SUV still consumes more than the saturn- you're rewarding the Highlander driver for 1) being able to afford a hybrid SUV and 2) being less bad than the non-hybrid suv driver. If that's all it takes, someone switching from an old v-10 M5 (17 mpg highway) to a new v-8 M5 (22 highway) should get the same benefit
But you still end up having to drive a Highlander every day.
Which conserves more gasoline over 400 miles of commuting, switching from a 35 MPG highway Saturn to a 50 MPG Prius, or switching from a 20 MPG Escalade to a 28 MPG Hybrid Highlander?
Getting the Escalade driver into the Highlander saves 5.7 gallons over 400 miles. The Saturn to Prius change only saves less than 3.5 gallons.
If we measured gasoline efficiency in terms of gallons per mile rather than miles per gallon, we might get different purchasing behavior that results in less gas consumption in the current product class mix.
This is how they measure in most of Europe, liters per 100 km.
