Alternative vehicle ideas

I've been playing with the idea of car design lately. If you spend enough time behind the wheel, I think you just have to start thinking about what you would most like to see in a vehicle.
With gas prices being what they are today, I have been thinking mostly about alternative drive designs. My thought is an electric car, receiving it's power from a small gas powered electrical generator. The combustion engine does not move the vehicle, the electric motors on all four wheels do that. The generator only charges the batteries. The system provides the best of both energy sources to the car. Electric motors accelerate and give best power through the entire range, and there are few moving parts, and the generator gives the car better range than just batteries could.
The other thing cars need today is to be sized correctly for the way we live. The trend towards suvs has to stop. Why does there have to be such a huge tank to move one person from home to work and back, with stops at the grocery store? There should be a return to the small truck and compact car. Give them enough stance to handle Canadian roads, but let's not get into overkill here people.
For my wife and myself, I'd like to see a North American version of the Smart car. It would have a small rear seat, suitable for children or two adults on short trips, that could be folded flat to hold a week's worth of groceries. In Europe, they tend to shop every couple of days, so a tiny car is fine. The streets are narrower there too. In North America, we have more space in our cities, and we tend to do our shopping in bulk. Give us a smart car that reflects this.
It would be nice to sit down with the people at General Motors or Ford and discuss the ideas I've had. It would probably never go anywhere, as long as people are willing to pay high gas prices and demand the large behemoths to feel more powerful on the road. Still, it would be nice to have my thoughts in there.