Found this neat website... I'm actually dismayed that north american automakers are not applying all available technologies to this goal. Not only could they have hybrid cars, but they could use diesels, with varying multicylinder modes (also called Low Emissions Idle), and they could use more carbon-fiber composites to reduce weight. As it stands it will be another year or two before the "big three" automakers introduce a hybrid vehicle, a full 4 years behind their Japanese competitors. If I were them I'd be embarassed.

So far Volkswagon is the only one to go the whole nine yards, and produce a two-seater 239 mpg diesel hybrid car with magnesium frame and carbon-composite shell, 80-liter baggage compartment, forward crush zone, seat belts & airbag, antilock brakes, and rollover protection.

Don't get me wrong, they have been astonishingly creative, but have focussed on sports cars, SUVs, and concepts that I would call "supercars", including fuel cell vehicles, that I would put out of the price range of anyone but Bill Gates.

Someone once said "Survival is the ultimate policy", and survival is achieved by the most efficient, lowest cost, most utilitarian, and most attractive. We in north america seem to think that the SUV fits the bill. Indeed, most of the hybrids being introduced in the next few years appear to be trucks and SUVs, not cars.