Consumers love SUVs about as much as Dungeons & Dragons players love John McCain, but that isn't keeping Chrysler -- remember them? -- from rolling out not one, but two hybrid SUVs.

All new cars will have some degree of hybridization by 2020, by which point battery technology will be ubiquitous and vehicles will communicate with one another and the road to make driving safer and easier.

That vision of the future is laid out in "Automotive 2020: Clarity Beyond the Chaos," (.pdf) by the IBM Institute for Business Value. The report, based on interviews with 125 auto industry executives in 15 countries, says the industry is on the cusp of revolutionary changes that will see environmental sustainability and technological innovation become top priorities as automakers respond to consumer demands for more efficient cars that don't sacrifice performance, comfort or reliability.

Honda's watched from the sidelines for the better part of a decade as the Toyota Prius left its hybrids in the dust to become the must-have ride of the green set. Fed up with being an also-ran, Honda hopes to take down Toyota with an entry-level hybrid that gets 60 mpg and costs about $19,000.

Hybrids are the greatest. They pollute less and consume less than regular cars and save you boatloads of money at the pump. But activists and legislators consider them silent killers that prey on blind people who never hear 'em coming.

Full Hybrids like the ubiquitous Toyota Prius run only on electricity at low speeds, emitting no more than a whine around town. That's great for lowering noise-vibration harshness and making drivers feel like George Jetson, but it's a big problem for the blind -- and pedestrians, and cyclists, and people who simply don't pay attention -- who rely on the familiar rumble of internal combustion to know what's coming down the pike.

If vehicles could be sainted, stained-glass artists all over the U.S. would be busy figuring out the best colors for the Toyota Prius to shine in. Brand new examples of the motorized mollusk that everyone can't wait to buy spend just five days on dealer lots. Last year's model lasts just fifteen days more.

The real coup, however, is in the prices. An unused Prius requires about $26,672 to take home. The used version, with fewer than 10,000 miles, goes for around $27,945. That's right, nearly $1,300 more. More incredible: a 2007 model with more than 22,000 miles will only save you $276 compared to the price of a shiny new 2008. We're not sure you can even call that depreciation.

You may not know it yet, but you'll almost certainly have a hybrid in your driveway before long.

With gas prices hitting new records and everyone in a tizzy about global warming, interest in - and demand for - the thrifty gas-electric vehicles is off the chart. Sixty-two percent of people in the market for a new car are considering a hybrid, and some experts predict sales could hit 2 million a year by 2013.

Don't like the looks of the Toyota Prius and find the Honda Civic Hybrid a bit bland? No problem. You'll have 88 other models to choose from by then.

The Finnish firm that builds the Porsche Cayman and Boxer will build the $80,000 Karma plug-in hybrid that Fisker Automotive promises to start putting in driveways within 18 months.

By Stuart Schwartzapfel

Lotus, the go-fast gurus who brought us the wonderful Elise and helped Tesla Motors with the Roadster, is developing a hydrogen fuel cell taxi that could be on the road by 2012 and hybrid Jaguar limo.