Japanese auto makers Toyota start investing on Hybrid cars since 1994, the idea is to create a new car which would be fuel efficient, environmentally friendly and most importantly: manufacture and sale to mass market.

There are a lot of solutions for environment friendly car e.g. solar powered, hydrogen, electric powered etc, but most of them stay as a concept car, hide in the lab and never see the daylight over the tarmac.

Hybrid car using a powerplant that run on gasoline & electric power. This concept prove to be successful as you can pump in gasoline at any petrol station, when the car propel, the electric motor provered by the battery will slowly take place, provide partial energy to power the wheel, hence to save on the usage of gasoline. In a typical Toyota Prius's Hybrid Synergy Drive engine, a motor generator will convert kinetic energy (when you step on the brake) to electric energy, which can also recharge the battery.

A 2010 Prius can achieve 48mpg (4.9L/100km) on combine city & highway driving, which make it the 2009 most fuel efficient car available in the US.
Prius emits only 89g/km of CO2, compare to a petrol powered Corolla that meets Euro IV standard emits 172g/km.

The old days of muscle car that burn gasoline like nobody business is over. We are talking about Green now, as the result, you can see Japanese auto makers become larger & larger, and oil sucking American automakers are sinking.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight


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