I’ll go ahead and answer the question in your head. The Dodge Caliber, with a final score of 49 out of 100, is the only vehicle tested by Consumer Reports that scored lower than the Honda Insight (54 points). David Champion, senior director of CR’s Auto Test Center calls it “the most disappointing Honda Consumer Reports has tested in a long time”. CR testers berated everything from its visibility to interior noise and handling. The as-tested 38 mpg fell within manufacturer’s claims and softened the blow a bit, but I have to wonder how a car with so many faults still garners a “Good” overall rating from Consumer Reports. First place was given a “Very Good”. Photos, full press release and my proposed ratings system after the jump.

It’s your last auto ride on the planet, most likely, so why make a CO2-spewing statement that you don’t care if the glaciers melt all over the living? Forget that plush Caddy hearse … you need a Prius! Lequios has come to the rescue of eco-funeral lovers everywhere by producing this $80,000 stretched hybrid. They’ve added 77 inches, for a total length of just over 21 feet, and hundreds of pounds of weight – and yet, the intact hybrid drivetrain will still get your mortician a very respectible 44 MPG.

The MINI E UK Research Consortium has won a £25m grant from the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board in order to launch a 12-month field study of the MINI E’s real-world sustainability. Spearheaded by MINI’s parent company, BMW Group, the MINI E UK Research Consortium is comprised of several corporate, academic, and government organizations, including energy provider Scottish and Southern Energy, Oxford Brookes University’s Sustainable Vehicle Engineering Centre, the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), as well as both the Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council.

Joining similar projects already underway in the U.S. and Germany, the UK test project will bring BMW Group one step closer towards achieving Strategy Number ONE: mass-producing the electric plug-in MINI E within the next five years.

I’m not even going to try and stifle my fanboyism here. I am totally stoked about the Chevy Volt. As of now, GM has ditched the “Volt in Cruze clothing” mules for full-on preproduction prototypes. Up to 80 cars will be produced between now and October while engineers work out the bugs. So far, I’m loving it in black.

2009 Honda Insight

According to the Wall Street Journal, based on the rate at which it is currently selling, Honda is happily bracing themselves and shareholders for huge sales figures of their Insight Hybrid in the coming year. In the U.S. alone, this may amount to between 50,000 and 60,000 new Insights sold this year alone.

Which one would you rather see with a Turbo-Diesel powerplant?

am-biv-a-lence
-noun
1. Psychology. the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing him or her in opposite directions.

Lamborghini is taking its own steps to save the environment through the kissing of environmentalist-ass!

Like most companies, the Italian manufacturer finds itself under pressure to make-nice and reduce C02 emissions and increase the fuel-efficiency of their cars. Though Lamborghini is technically exempt from the harshest wave of Emission Laws in the European Union per a clause pertaining to “manufacturers of ’specialty’ vehicles (with fewer than 10,000 new cars made per year) who run their own production facilities and design centres, even though they are part of a group of associated producers,” Lamborghini nonetheless is doing their part to at least look like they care.

In a new press release, Lamborghini details their plans to clean-up their factories by attaching solar panels to the roofs of their plants, really a smart move considering factories make up the portly midsection of those Pollution Pie Charts.

But their plans involve the possibility of Lamborghini Hybrids as well.

Don't hold your breath.

Volvo has issued a press release laying vague claim to an upcoming series of plug-in diesel hybrids (PHEV “DRIVe” in Volvo’s “Bork Bork” corporate marketing lingo) that will maybe, sort of, probably be coming in 2012 (give or take a decade). We hear lots of elaborate claims by automakers about their upcoming products, and we’re not doubting that Volvo CAN make these hybrid cars … we’ll just believe it when we see it.

SEAT Leon Ecomotive Concept

Of the myriad varieties of hybrid, electric, natural gas and hydrogen cars that have sprouted up in recent memory, some of the most promising advances towards cleaner vehicles and greater fuel efficiency are in the form of diesel technology; such as those found in the SEAT Concept displayed here.  And if you were to bet on one company succeeding at making and selling a diesel car to the masses, it would be Volkswagen, a company Spanish automaker SEAT belongs to.

Nissan 370Z

Nissan has been promising their own hybrid for some time while offering a hybrid version of the Altima in the short-term that utilizes Toyota propulsion and technology. Now there is buzz circulating that one of the first vehicles in the Nissan lineup to receive the in-house hybrid treatment will be the 370Z.

The new contender, trim and ready to fight the heavyweight and former champion trendmobile (the Toyota Prius), has bested it in a debut bout. The Honda Insight has not only become the best selling hybrid in Japan, but also the best selling car. Well, excluding Kei-cars.