It's pretty clear that there's much more consumer demand for hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles than ever before, as the Washington Post reports. "A business model based on gas—a gas-guzzling past—is unacceptable," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said last week. "We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car." But the reality may not be so simple.

The article goes into some detail about how hybrids are money-losers for automakers, at least in the short term. That's probably still true even for Toyota, who is already on its one millionth Prius, much less for a company in peril like GM that's planning to release the Volt in two years. It's an interesting read; at the same time, there's still no reason why manufacturers can't focus on more efficient gas and diesel powered cars and small SUVs for the time being, which are still a vast improvement over all the larger SUVs and trucks out there.