Take the 1.8-liter, four-cylinder Nissan Versa. Last year its sales jumped 259% from the year before. No wonder: It's got an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) miles-per-gallon rating of 26 city and 31 highway. The Honda Fit, a similar vehicle with near-identical mileage, was up 101%.
.But those who can are still plunking down their money to buy high performance cars and SUVs that have the carbon footprint of a sasquatch.
"I think we can all observe what's happening," says Barry Engle, who took over as president of Ford of Canada in February.
"Up until now there certainly seems to be a preponderance of consumers who, on the one hand express interest in being more environmentally friendly and on the other hand are completely unwilling to give up any performance."
Perhaps it's not surprising after all. Public opinion polls have suggested people are concerned about climate change and want to do something.
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The projects meant a combined investment of 16.67 billion baht ($528.7 million), the board said in a statement.
The Thai unit of Japanese carmaker Toyota would invest 4.64 billion baht in a plant with the capacity to assemble 100,000 so-called eco cars a year expected to start production in 2012, it said.
Half that production would be for export, mainly to Southeast Asia and the Asia-Oceania region, it said.
Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) would spend 4.7 billion baht on a plant with an annual capacity of 107,000 eco cars, 88 percent of them for export, with production scheduled for 2010, it said.
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Black cars, car services for corporate clients, average 12 to 15 mpg, but starting Jan. 1, new vehicles put into service will have to reach 25 mpg. The target jumps to 30 mpg in 2010.
Bloomberg again lambasted Congress for not addressing global warming, mocking the fuel-efficiency standards it's proposing as laughably low, as he stood before four shiny hybrids in the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center.
"New York City is not waiting," the mayor declared.
Two Lexus GS 450h and three Prius vehicles replaced five BMW diesel service cars, which Bursik offered to other ministries.
The new Toyotas combine a conventional gasoline engine and an electric motor. The ministry has leased the cars.
Last year, the ministry worked out an analysis of the best possible vehicle.
Ministry's spokesman Jakub Kaspar told CTK that Prius was chosen because it had the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre, while no other car-maker than Toyota offered a hybrid car of a quality similar to the luxury Lexus GS 450h.
The ministry also bought an older model of the hybrid Prius two years ago that has been used by Deputy Environment Minister Ales Kutak.
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