Fuel-Efficient Styling Becoming a Drag

Automotive designers should be commended for doing their part to forestall depletion of the precious natural resources necessary to drive internal-combustion engines as we know them today.

Aerodynamicists have saved untold barrels of oil purely by styling hybrid-electric vehicles with smooth surfaces, steeply raked windshields, sleeker mirrors and uncluttered underbodies, allowing them to slice through air like a knife through soft butter.

But the language of ...