Hybrid Car News

What used to be the premier auto show in the United States, the Detroit Auto Show, has now become a billboard for all that’s wrong with the ailing American automotive industry. It seems that cars from ‘Merican manufacturers are still outsold by forien competitors, and even worse, those foreign cars are made here, in America, but usually not in Detroit.

And to rub a little salt in the motor city’s rusty wounds, Toyota just announced that they're to unveil the latest Prius at the 2011 Detroit auto show. This comes as strange because not only is the Detroit Show over 3 months away, the LA show is only next month, which is where the green market is strongest. So who knows, perhaps Toyota is trying to throw the old city a hybrid bone.

Narrowly beating out recall-plagued Toyota, Honda was awarded their fifth straight “Greenest Automaker” title today. The Union of Concerned Scientists gives the award every year to the automaker with the cleanest fleet of vehicles, and Honda wins again.

And this isn’t just a win for Honda—it’s a knockout. The panel points out that Honda’s fleet is 14% cleaner than the top 8 auto manufacturers combined! Automaker rankings are based on average per-mile smog pollution and global-warming emissions of their entire fleet of vehicles sold. Way to go green, Honda!

For your list loving pleasure, here are the rankings:

Time’s up if you were planning on raking in a new Nissan Leaf. On Friday, September 24^th, Nissan announced that it had taken 20,000 pre-orders for the new EV, and they will stop taking reservations.

So, if you really, really want a Nissan Leaf, we’ll give you the same advice we give the fans of our local professional sports franchises (Chargers and Padres)—wait’ll next year.

Source: MyNissanLeaf

Back in April we introduced you to the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-PRIZE Competition which offers a $10,000,000 prize for the most super-fuel efficient vehicle design.

Well, the results are in and the competition is being lauded in the green community as a bona-fide success. The winners were announced in a pomp & circumstance ceremony held in Washington DC last week, and the results are a bit surprising.

The biggest winner took home $5,000,000, and surprising enough, it was an internal-combustion powered 4 seat sedan running on E85. Burning a scant 102.5 mpg, the Very Light Car by team Edison 2 relied on small displacement and a featherweight design to take the win.

On the greener side of things, second place was snagged by a full electric called the Wave by Li-Ion Motors. It managed an astounding 187 mpg for the win in its class, but took second place overall to the Edison 2 which won the Mainstream Class.

For a complete rundown of the competition, check the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-PRIZE site. And, check your local listings, because tomorrow night (9-23), the National Geographic Channel will be airing their coverage of the competition called X Prize Cars: Accelerating the Future.