The situations are changing very quickly it seems. There used to be a time when car manufacturers were worried about the rising fuel prices since the customers refrained from buying or driving fuel gusling cars. The SUVs and fuel guzzlers were seen as non-green and their sales fell drastically forcing manufacturers to focus on other fuel means.
Now just when manufacturers have invested a lot on the alternate fuel engine developments, the oil prices have fallen down the sky to about $80 a barrel from around $150 a few months ago. If this lower crude oil prices continue or even lower due to the US recession, then people may again prefer the traditional fuel methods and SUVs. This will be quite a blow to the manufacturers who have invested a lot of funds and R&D into alternate fuels. They may be forced to once again compete in the traditional fuel category thereby needing to transfer a lot of investments and research once again back to petrol/diesel.
Worse is the situation of manufacturers like Ford who have literally closed down production of trucks and SUVs in anticipation of less demand from the public.
Unless a very good and efficient alternate fuel car comes along, which is very unlikely in a short period, this entire market may have to cope with fluctuating oil prices and unstable people's car buying attitude.
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