Video: Susan Sarandon, Erstwhile Gas-Guzzling Soccer Mom, Hates These High Gas Prices

Gone In Sixty Seconds

Oscar-winning actress, liberal activist, and newfangled ping-pong aficionado Susan Sarandon can add green-car enthusiast to her checklist of personal labels. When we caught her at an event to celebrate the U.S. debut of Cantamessa Jewelry in the Manhattan Motorcars Showroom, she dished a little on her EV interests in light of her dark gas-guzzling past.


Now that her children out in L.A. have commandeered her Toyota Prius, she's looking to up the ante on her eco-friendly motor-habits.

"I hear that Fiat is putting out a new electric car," she said. "I'd like to eventually get an electric car."

Sarandon was, of course, referring to the Fiat 500 EV, set to hit the U.S. market in 2012 and go head-to-head with the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi iMiev. But why the cute Cinquecento?

In quite the kicker, the Hollywood star revealed her tendency toward EVs stemmed from the outrageous gas prices over $4 a gallon.

"It just makes sense, because gas is becoming so expensive," she carped.

This fuel-efficiency instinct may also be a counter to her dark past as a mommy-chauffeur.

"When the kids were going to games and everything, I had a bigger car that I would take all the kids wherever," she said. "I was definitely a soccer mom."

We wondered: was it a Suburban or some such gas-guzzler?

"Unless they give me one, I'm not gonna tell you what it is," Sarandon demurred. She says it "was a little bit smaller." Hmmm. Ford Explorer? Mercedes M Class? Lexus RX?

We leave it to OEMs to attach Sarandon to a crossover hybrid ad campaign to marry her mysterious driving provenance with her current green predilections.

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