Buy EV, problem solved 
I’d buy a car if there were some with 3 rows.
The most fuel efficient cars are now electric cars. So there is no going back to high fuel consumption if gas prices spike. Ford has announced a plug-in SUV for example.
They might be more fuel efficient, however, outside of California, nobody has really taken much of an interest in them.
Most people don’t. E.g., the Mazda5 went away because there weren’t enough sales to justify certifying to the latest safety standards.
Overall, minivan (more efficient alternative to full size SUVs) sales and market share keep falling every year.
I liked the mazda5 but a minivan seemed like a better deal. The mazda5 didn’t get good gas mileage was one of my issues. Why go smaller if you don’t get better gas mileage? I own a Honda Odyssey , but wife thinks it is too big.
Crossovers get a lot better MPG than SUVs of yesteryear did. I don’t think the gap in fuel efficiency is big enough to make people come back to cars, but it may slow down large SUV sales and drive more people to the midsize and below crossovers.