So goes the famous quote from Edward Furia of AFSTrinity. That company's retrofitted Saturn Vue SUV certainly received a lot of mainstream media publicity this year. By turning it into a plug-in hybrid they got it to go clean for 40 miles on electrons before taking its first sip.

Ever since we were finally blasted with the gas prices the rest of the world has endured for years, we have seen astounding stories such as Resale value of SUVs drop $8,000 in 6 months!, and Minicoopers down to one-day supply! or Ford stops building trucks. On a superficial level, the SUV certainly seems as if it's soon to draw its last breath

So it is no surprise that they got a lot of publicity for their modified Saturn Vue, converted into a plug-in hybrid with an all-electric range of 40 miles. Like a regular, unrepentant Saturn Vue, their plug-in hybrid version could go up to 87 mph, but it could do so while in the all-electric mode. Unlike the Vue, it got 150 mpg as a result. It also got one of those hard-to-remember names that seem designed to shut down your neurons, so I'll spare your brain and not repeat it here.

Now, AFSTrinity has worked with NASA, DARPA, the Navy, the Army, the Department of Transportation, the California Energy Commission, Oak Ridge National Labs, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, and with companies including Mercedes, Lockheed and Honeywell. Ricardo, the world's leading independent automotive engineering firm, with over 1,900 engineers in facilities around the world, is assisting them in building the first prototypes.

But, as many a green car blog queried, did it deserve all this attention? After all, Detroit will likely be building hybrid versions of its oil-addicted SUVs themselves. Some say that by 2020 every vehicle will be hybrid.

I think, however, that what conversion companies like AFS are doing is pushing the Overton Window. With enough publicity or even unwarranted hype for plug-in hybrids, consumers will come to expect and demand them from every automaker.

Only then will Detroit will truly rehab the SUV not merely as a hybrid but as a plug-in hybrid. (And maybe take a second look at the vehicles'  size and mass, and reduce that a bit, too.)

So, good for AFS. That Overton Window needs to be moved.