http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/business/04leonhardt.html?_r=1&ref=automobiles&oref=slogin "If gas remains near $4 a gallon, as many analysts expect, a big vehicle like the F-250 will cost $100,000 for an owner who keeps it for a typical amount of time (five years) and drives it a typical amount (15,000 miles a year). The gas alone would cost about $30,000, up from about $10,000 in the 1990s. ... While the F-250 costs $100,000 and a fully loaded F-150 — the better-known, smaller Ford pickup — costs about $70,000, a Ford Focus still costs less than $40,000 over five years. A Honda Civic Hybrid does, too. A Toyota Prius costs only a little more. A Subaru Outback station wagon runs $50,000 or so."
These numbers suggest not only seismic changes in the car industry, but major changes in the commercial transport industry as well. Trucking companies will want hybrid and battery trucks. Railroads will be more commercially attractive. Hybrid buses are inevitable.
