1) There are several alternative reasons to explain the increasing sales of conventional SUVs while the gasoline price is increasing and society is intensively advocating environmental protection. First, SUVs and other types of lager cars can carry more people and goods, they are the best choice for most American families. Second, most drivers currently are expecting the gas prices would rise to $5 per gallon through the years. However, the most recent average national prices of gasoline have been $3.80 per gallon, which is not that cheap but below the expectation. As a result, drivers are not much too desperate to find the absolute most fuel-efficient cars possible. Third, modern types of SUVs in the market are no longer the type of those old “trucks”. The outdated SUVs with giant tanks, such as Hammer and Ford Excursion, are seldom produced today. By contrast, the fastest-growing SUVs in production line are such small, remarkably fuel-efficient SUVs as the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape, and other types so-called anti-Hummers.

Since more drivers today are rejecting the rough rides from “truck” SUVs, and dislike the largely consumable gas mileage, contemporary automakers realized the innovation on gas efficiency of SUVs. The Explorer today, for example, has little in common with vintage ’90s Explorer. The old version was carrying a truck-based design. Today’s Explorer, equipped with a smaller, more fuel-efficient engine shares more similarities with a sedan instead of a truck.

2) The influences of high gasoline prices are moderate on the growth of the hybrid market. While gas prices are rising at a constant rate, with current average price of $3.93 per gallon, customers considering new vehicles are not switching to a hybrid. According to an Automotive News report, hybrid sales was only made up of just 2.4 percent of the all U.S. auto sales last year. Most analysts also claim that price premium that most hybrid models charge outweighs the benefits of promoted gas efficiency. From New York Times, the extra cost to enjoy the fuel-efficient technologies is too high for most drivers to save money in a short term, especially when compared to new models with conventional internal-combustion engines.” Furthermore, from the EPA, hybrid drivers “would take 17 years to make up for the hybrid’s extra cost over the diesel’s price in fuel savings.” Therefore, the unworthy extra cost to have hybrid vehicles may prohibit customer from switching to the gas-saving technologies, even the gas prices are