GM dealers tired of hearing about 2011 Chevrolet Volt? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?		LA 2009: Ford Focus BEV update These might be the most in-demand Fords around.
	REPORT: Audi e-tron sales to be limited to 1,000 units The line forms thataway.	Other news: 55 mph national limit to make a comeback? Not so fast. Tazzari Zero debuts at Bologna Motor Show, price revealed Reality Bites: limos, CO2 emissions and private jets at Hopenhagen

	GM invests $336 million into Detroit plant to build Volt Step #5,453 of #7,503 to bring the car to market.		EPA says green house gases endanger people, environment - and it's all our fault It's official: the cars we drive are hurting us.
	Hopenhagen brings eco-cars to Denmark for climate change conference Plenty of EVs, hydrogen vehicles and more in Denmark right now.	Other news: Chevy Volt: The Song REPORT: Minicar, EV on the way from Opel Peugeot to show off fuel cell ER-EV 307CC this week

	LA 2009: CMT-380 packs microturbine, li-ion battery into a matte black package It's one way to make a $20,000 kit car into a $375,000 project.		Don't you dare: French parents criticize Renault for naming new electric car Zoé What would happen if we had the Ford Emily, hmm?
	Et tu, Clarkson? Top Gear names Toyota Prius its "City Car of the Year" Surprise!	Other news: Governors want E15 waiver sooner rather than later Five EVs, one hydrogen car, one PHEV named as finalists for 2010 Green Car Vision Award Fisker: VP Biden not the reason we chose Delaware

Jeremy Clarkson seems to hate anything that "greens up" or in any other way adds an "eco" label to his cars – and some environmentalists don't exactly appreciate the television host either – so it's with some amusement that we learn that the Top Gear team has named the Toyota Prius the "City Car of the Year." Turns out, the Prius really can appeal to almost everyone.

Clarkson was not specifically quoted in the Prius praise piece – remember, this is the guy who called Honda's Insight "Biblically terrible" and pretended to run out of energy in a Tesla Roadster – but his mates said the 2010 Prius gets "awesome numbers" of 60 mpg (U.S. gallons, as measured on the UK scale) and emits just 89 grams of C02 per km. And all this from "a proper family five-door hatch." BBC Top Gear Editor Conor McNicholas even called the third-gen model "something quite ground-breaking." Press release pasted after the jump.



[Source: Toyota]

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	LA 2009: Mitsubishi will bring an EV to U.S. in 2011, but it might not be the i-MiEV Really. Shoot.		LA 2009: First Fisker Karmas now expected to hit showrooms in Sept. 2010 Delays were expected, but this is still a disappointment.
	LA 2009: Bob Lutz keynote: "The automobile industry simply can no longer rely on oil" Quite a quotable guy, that Mr. Lutz.	Other news: LA 2009: Audi A3 TDI named 2010 Green Car of the Year in diesel repeat Tesla Brabus Green Package includes free electricity, at home and away LA 2009: The World's Most Expensive Tesla Roadster

At the LA Auto Show this morning, the Audi A3 TDI was crowned the 2010 Green Car of the Year, wresting the title away from last year's winner, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Even though three hybrids made this year's list of finalists, the A3's win marks the second year in a row that a TDI diesel car took top honors in the Green Car Journal competition.

The judges selection kind of meshes with AutoblogGreen readers, who overwhelmingly picked the VW Golf TDI from the list of five finalists. The other contenders were the Honda Insight, the Mercury Milan Hybrid (we still don't get why this car beat out the better-selling and nearly identical Ford Fusion Hybrid) and the Toyota Prius.

Each year, Green Car Journal picks the five finalists and then hands over selection duties to celebrity jurors (Jay Leno, Carroll Shelby, and the Sierra Club's Carl Pope, to name a few). During the award ceremony, Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan said that the five finalists are notable because they are all mainstream vehicles that are available today. They exist because that's what the market is asking for. Whaddya think? Is the A3 TDI this year's rightful Green Car of the Year?



[Source: Green Car Journal]

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While Mitsubishi didn't unveil any new vehicles at the LA Auto Show today, company president Osamu Masuko did announce the latest step in his company's plan to bring plug-in vehicles to North America. The vehicle – well, one of them – is an all-electric i-MiEV plastered with Best Buy's Geek Squad logo. The electronics giant will start using them in January (after they're shown off at CES) at some Geek Squad locations in California. Details have not yet been totally worked out, but the Geek EVs will start with a fleet of four vehicles and then expand and rotate to other stores over the course of three years. Most likely, the i-MiEVs will be doled out in pairs and the probable early cities where these vehicles will make house calls include Chicago, New York, Portland and San Francisco.

Best Buy plans to use the i-MiEVs just like any other fleet car, with the exception that they will be right-hand drive. Best Buy's Senior Vice President of emerging business, Rick Rommel, told AutoblogGreen that the idea is to learn "how these will fit into a Geek's daily life." The plug-in vehicle tests with Geek Squad are unrelated to how select West Coast Best Buy stores are selling electric bikes. That said, Rommel admits that the key thing is that Best Buy likes to conduct new experiments, and these EVs fit into that general concept.



Live photos copyright ©2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

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	LA 2009: Officially, Official: Golden state to get first dibbs on the Chevy Volt A bit of a reward for relentlessly pushing for plug-in vehicles.		LA 2009: Mitsubishi unveils Geek Squad i-MiEV, brings PX-MiEV to U.S. Geeks with EVs will soon be making house calls.
	LA 2009: Honda's P-NUT cracked open for all to see Concept cars. What a concept.	Other news: Lexus Magazine explains how to get 85 mpg from HS 250h Feds mull an extra three months to crush Cash For Clunkers victims LA 2009: Volkswagen Up! Lite Concept teases with practical, lightweight innovation

Turns out that the Honda P-NUT is not some sort of twist on the UX-3 unicycle thing we saw in Tokyo recently. Instead, the concept vehicle is a three-seat thing enclosed in lots of glass and angular lines. Honda says the P-NUT is ready for one of three possible powertrains: an efficient gas engine, a gas-electric hybrid, or a pure electric set up. There's not a whole lot of room for any of these powerplants up front because the driver's leg room extends almost all the way to the front of the concept. Good thing the power source is intended to be mounted in the rear.

Let's be clear, this is a pure concept car. There are no side mirrors (but there is a back-up camera). Bumpers? Bah, Honda barely put headlights on this thing. Still, the Honda 'Personal-Neo Urban Transport' could make for a pretty sweet ride through a city, with lots of sight lines for the three inhabitants (a driver in the front middle, two passengers arranged behind and to either side) to see out of. The P-NUT does succeed in Honda's stated goal to get the most space out of a small footprint, and we wouldn't mind some sort of production version BEV someday. Chances are, though, that this is the last we'll ever see of it.




Live photos copyright ©2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

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	LA Preview: HH2 will be back to tout onboard hydrogen generation. Can you believe it? Some things never change.		Viridian Joule picked as winner of Chevy Volt Paint Color Contest Millions of Americans will reach for the dictionary on this one.
	LA Preview: CMT-380 plug-in diesel hybrid supercar uses microturbine, li-ion batteries It's unlike any other hybrid, that's for sure.	Other news: Hydrogen cars + math. Worth the trouble? An adventurer and his Brammo Enertia Spy Shots: Smart ForTwo+2 in the works?