Hybrid Gas Electric Vehicles

Before it even started selling them, Chrysler is spiking its hybrids. The troubled automaker said Tuesday that it would discontinue production of its Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen hybrid sport utility vehicles at year-end, when the company shuts down the Delaware plant that makes the two trucks. Chrysler is closing the plant because sales of the non-hybrid versions of the SUVs have been selling poorly.

With the Big Three automakers tottering and China's once go-go car market in reverse, this might seem a bad time for a relative unknown to be launching a new vehicle. Then again, BYD Co. isn't rolling out any ordinary car. On Monday, the upstart company best known for making cellphone batteries will begin selling its F3DM -- China's first mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle. The car is expected to retail for around $20,000 in China and make its way to U.S. shores in 2011.

As we know from the works of Cormac McCarthy, despair can be kind of gratifying. And yet, as much as I hate to disturb our national mood of decline, I have some good news regarding the auto industry. You may return to your comfort drinking presently. The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, and its twin, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, are mid-to-full-size sedans that seat five in surprising comfort and offer a full-size trunk measuring around 12 cubic feet. They measure 190.

If you are what you drive, California lawmakers are a newly green bunch. They're swapping gas-sucking sport utility vehicles for gas-sipping hybrids as their official state cars. Now that the lease on his Ford Explorer has expired, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) is driving a Toyota Prius. At least 38 of his fellow members also have chosen hybrids; only 10 have requested nonhybrid SUVs as their taxpayer-subsidized wheels.

President Bush ordered the federal government Wednesday to move toward purchasing hybrid-powered vehicles and reducing the federal fleet's petroleum consumption by 2% each year, part of an effort to boost alternatives to gasoline. Bush announced the executive order during a morning devoted to promoting new-technology fuels.

Nissan Motor Co. began shipping the 2007 Altima hybrid, the nation's newest gasoline-electric vehicle, to dealerships this week and said Tuesday that prices would begin at $25,015. That's well below competing mid-size hybrids, such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s Camry and Honda Motor Co.'s Accord. But the sticker price represents a $4,000 increase over Nissan's high-volume Altima S model with a conventional four-cylinder gasoline engine.

Hybrid owners hoping to drive solo in the fast lane are out of luck. The state Department of Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it had issued all 85,000 carpool lane stickers available to hybrid drivers under a state law passed in 2005. Spokesman Steve Haskins said the agency received 700 applications more than the limit for the $8 stickers, which expire in 2010.

Kermit the Frog may have been right about the difficulties of being green, but a growing number of automakers are trying. An annual online rating of what's "green" and what isn't, published today, has four new models on its list of the dozen most environmentally friendly vehicles for 2007.

A U.S. International Trade Commission administrative judge sided with Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., concluding that two of its hybrid models did not infringe a patent held by a small U.S. company, the agency said. U.S. Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern said the Toyota Prius and Highlander hybrids did not infringe a patent held by Tarpon Springs, Fla.-based Solomon Technologies Inc., as Solomon had alleged.

The world's biggest automakers say it could be several years before plug-in hybrids are ready for the marketplace. But Southern California's principal air quality regulator expects some of its employees and other drivers to be tooling around in such vehicles by the end of the year. The South Coast Air Quality Management District agreed Friday to spend $2.6 million for a test fleet of 30 plug-in hybrid cars and sport utility vehicles.