Hybrid Gas Electric Vehicles

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. The passes allow drivers of hybrids that get at least 45 miles per gallon to drive in freeway carpool lanes, even if they are alone.

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.

Hyundai Motor Co. plans to be producing 300,000 gasoline-electric or diesel-electric powered vehicles annually by 2015. The company aims to develop cars with fuel efficiency that is 50% greater than current models, the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. The plan includes production from Hyundai affiliate Kia Motors Corp. Hyundai is trying to catch up with Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., which already sell hybrid vehicles.

President Bush peeked under the hoods of hybrid cars and toured two automobile assembly lines Tuesday to urge Americans to buy more alternative fuel vehicles as part of his initiative to reduce gasoline use. "Americans are just getting used to this kind of ... technological breakthroughs, something you're used to," Bush told automobile workers at the Ford assembly plant near Kansas City.

Sales of hybrid cars and trucks rose 28% in 2006 from a year earlier, with more than a fifth sold in just three California cities. Cities' share of total hybrid auto registrations in the U.S. in 2006 Los Angeles: 12.2% San Francisco: 8.1% New York: 5.6% Washington: 4.5% Boston: 3.1% Chicago: 3.0% Seattle: 2.8% Philadelphia: 2.7% San Diego: 2.0% Denver: 1.9% -- Source: R.L. Polk & Co. U.S. New Hybrid Registrations

Los Angeles County government, Southern California's largest employer, may soon join a burgeoning trend that entices workers to give up their gas-guzzling cars for more environmentally friendly ones. Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors asked its staff to come up with ways to encourage the county's 90,000 commuting employees -- about 90% of the workforce -- to buy and drive so-called green cars, such as hybrids partly fueled by electricity or other high mileage, low emission vehicles.

Hybrid sales are on a roll, and it's no secret what's driving them. "It's called $3 gasoline," said Fritz Hitchcock, who owns Toyota dealerships in Santa Barbara, Northridge and the City of Industry. "We are absolutely, positively liking hybrids, and it's only going to get better." That wasn't the consensus a few months ago. The growth rate of hybrid sales in the U.S.

In a move that could help promote development of batteries for electric and plug-in hybrid cars in the U.S., California's Tesla Motors Inc. plans to announce a $43-million, two-year deal this morning to supply electric-car batteries to Think, a Norwegian manufacturer of low-speed, electric "city" cars. The deal is expected to bring San Carlos, Calif.