Honestly, I think we need more full-size station wagons instead of more SUVs.
Think about it:
lower stance means easier to get into and out of (more child/elderly friendly)
Has a lower center of gravity, so ham-fisted drivers will just spin it out instead of flipping it
Has the same power as a SUV
Same cargo room as an SUV
better fuel economy than an SUV (My old 5.0 grand marquis wagon was getting fantastic fuel economy, I've had as high as 25mpg on the freeway...not bad for a car that could tow a large boat)
Easier to load/unload large heavy object into due to lower cargo deck.
Really, I think we should try to get past the "Off-road" wannabe syndrome that lots of people have, and consider an in-between vehicle.
As for hybrids, the electric motors have insane amounts of torque compared to a gas engine, which translates to increased towing capacity if the motors are used in the low RPM range. This could be done using a special gearbox configuration to force the engine into a specific RPM range. The only hard parrt I see is keeping the motors cool, as the more load it sees, the hotter the motors will run.
Pretty much engineering will prevail and there will be a way in the near future.
Think about it:
lower stance means easier to get into and out of (more child/elderly friendly)
Has a lower center of gravity, so ham-fisted drivers will just spin it out instead of flipping it
Has the same power as a SUV
Same cargo room as an SUV
better fuel economy than an SUV (My old 5.0 grand marquis wagon was getting fantastic fuel economy, I've had as high as 25mpg on the freeway...not bad for a car that could tow a large boat)
Easier to load/unload large heavy object into due to lower cargo deck.
Really, I think we should try to get past the "Off-road" wannabe syndrome that lots of people have, and consider an in-between vehicle.
As for hybrids, the electric motors have insane amounts of torque compared to a gas engine, which translates to increased towing capacity if the motors are used in the low RPM range. This could be done using a special gearbox configuration to force the engine into a specific RPM range. The only hard parrt I see is keeping the motors cool, as the more load it sees, the hotter the motors will run.
Pretty much engineering will prevail and there will be a way in the near future.