It's much, much worse for electricity: the graph I sent only shows losses _after generation_ ... much potential electricity is lost because there's no place to put it. I visited the Grand Coulee Dam this summer, and on the tour I was told that they have _never_ run at peak generating capacity, and only once or twice have they run at anything above about 80% -- you can't (easily) store electricity (yet), so the water just goes through the turbines and generates heat (and bubbles).
[Neat trick they have to allow the water to turn the turbines but not generate electricity; can you guess?]
Changing the overall efficiency of autos is going to require a revolution in manufacturing; saying "SUV: bad!" is probably just a small-percentage complaint. I remember when Al Gore got up and said that he was going to push the requirement for average-fuel-efficiency for diesel trucks up by 25% he was talking about moving it from 4MPG -> 5MPG ...
[ cf Hypercar: http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid386.php ]
/jordan