Well, looky here! Looks like hybrid car sales spiked up last month to the tune of a 20% increase, compared to a 12% increase for the auto industry as a whole. And while Toyota’s hybrid sales still dominate the market, Ford has taken second place; their Fusion Hybrid sales are up 64%, and the Escape is up 25%.

Ford’s approach to greener cars has been cautious and variant - Ford sustainability expert John Viera told Hybrid Cars that “there is no silver bullet” when it comes to eco-friendly cars whose problems range from upfront expense to support/maintenance infrastructure. We’re pretty sure he meant magic bullet, but that’s beside the point. Instead of using a single technology to brand themselves, Ford has kept a broad scope, putting work into “advanced internal combustion technology, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric cars.” Not a bad idea. Actually, we salute Ford’s efforts to supply more than one kind of green vehicle to the marketplace, even if it complicates their marketing. Options and adapability are an important part of green living, and it’s good to hear people besides us beating that drum. The risk for Ford is that one particular type of green car could heat up, leaving them in the dust behind a company that threw more resources into it, but that doesn’t seem to be where things are headed, and questions like “could Ford fall behind if electric cars take the world by storm?” are a little premature.

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) is sponsoring a 54 cent gasoline discount in DC this week, a gesture meant to symbolize the 54 cents/gallon imported ethanol tariff they want lifted. Brazil’s domestic flex-fuel market is so big that they want to expand it elsewhere, and America’s ongoing energy debate (and relative inactivity) makes us ripe for the picking. Of course, American ethanol organizations like Growth Energy are sternly opposed. According to their CEO, Tom Buis, “the only thing we should be importing from Brazil is their resolve to become energy independent.” Whether you agree or disagree, that’s a damn good quote.

Besides, American ethanol progress isn’t totally dead. Poet LLC has talked about their goal of producing 3.5 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2022, a lofty number they plan to reach by using their 26 plants to make corn and cellulosic ethanol in a process they called co-location. They also want to license the technology to other ethanol plants and increase the variety of feedstocks they use. And Verenium Corp. just got $4.9 million from the Dept. of Energy to support current cellulosic ethanol projects at its demonstration-scale facility in Jennings, LA. Cellulosic ethanol, which the media has been writing obituaries for since we started this blog, is moving forward.

Man, that makes us feel good. We needed some good news to start this week off right. Hopefully there’s more coming.

We’re taking a break from solar/wind/electric/green power for this post to update everyone on our first true love: ethanol. And not a moment too soon. For an ethanol blog, it feels like forever and a day since we discussed ethanol in any detail.

Our news is promising, too. Both DomesticFuel.com and Hoosier Ag. Today are reporting that 2010 started off with record ethanol production; January alone saw more than 800 thousand barrels a day. That’s nearly 200k more than January 2009, and according to the Renewable Fuels Association, the demand is rising to meet it. But there’s still work to be done. RFA president Bob Dinneen, who looks like what would happen if the Brawny towel guy let himself go, says the future would look even rosier for the ethanol industry were it not for “antiquated regulations” keeping the American consumer at arm’s length from ethanol and ethanol blends. Granted, he is the president of the RFA and that slants his take on things, but in the face of renewed calls for an American industrial economy and Brazil taunting us by lifting their ethanol tariff until 2011, his is not an unreasonable opinion.

Just to lend additional perspective, Click the Car for a map detailing the economic and personal impacts of oil dependence by state, then try to sleep at night.

Brazil has just put its ten millionth flex-fuel car on the road. Ten million of them. Really. It almost boggles the mind to read a figure like that. Likewise, it is staggering to behold the full bloom of their progress on that front; “almost all vehicles sold in Brazil are flex-fuel capable…and some are even compatible with 100% ethanol…Every gas station in the country sells E85 and almost all sell E100. This has all been accomplished without government subsidies.” Brazil is not, by the way, a wealthy country. But they caught the potential for this technology early and made a real investment in it, and now their ethanol industry is self-sustaining. Whatever else you may want to say (or hear from us) about that industry’s blemishes, they’ve done a lot more to lessen their dependence on fossil fuels than we have.

We, by the way, are still trying to shore up votes on how much we should even care, at the federal level, about the environment at all. Cap-and-trade is dead, and Democrats are scrambling to come up with something else. What they’ve come up with - “different types of limits for different sectors of the economy, beginning with electric utilities and then turning later to manufacturers such as chemical plants and pulp and paper mills” - isn’t terrible, but it does include built-in stall time while industry negotiates with the government. In the meantime, industry will be gobbling up resources and polluting with their usual gusto. Which is bad enough without so-called “green-savvy” politicians having no sense of urgency about broadening our energy sources or shrinking our carbon footprint. To quote one of our more loyal readers, this latest effort, while noble, will most likely “remain viable until the next round of ignorant talking points are developed.”

So Porsche has officially said no to proposed hybrid versions of the 911 or the Boxster - hybrid components, they claim, would add too much weight, and sports cars aren’t meant for city driving anyway. Debatable point, but whatever. The good news is that Porsche does want to make an all-electric sports car, assuming it could meet the performance standards of a regular engine. Or, more likely, when the corporate yuppie fartbags who drive Porsches can be convinced to go electric.

But hybrids are making progress elsewhere. Peugeot is still in production for its 2011 diesel-hybrid vehicle, the 3008 Hybrid4 Concept, and both Mercedes-Benz and GM are following suit. “Both cars are mild hybrids,” says Fox News’ website, “meaning the electric motor adds power to that of the combustion engine, as well as restarting it from stops. But they are not capable of running in all-electric mode, like…the Toyota Prius.” That was…surprisingly vitriol-free for Fox. Huh.

Anyway, hybrids and other green cars have been a hit for American automakers, whose finances are still delicate after Detroit’s 2007-08 freefalling crash - The Daily Green reports that “Ford’s hybrid sales were up 147% for the year,” adding that “the Ford Fusion Hybrid is a hit.” Ford has been recouping its losses, ending 2009 with a full percentage point gain in US market share, and their stock price is now 10 times improved. Their success could partly explain why GM is gunning for hybrid and diesel-hybrid vehicle production in the coming year - both GM and Chrysler are still struggling. Then again, Ford could go nowhere but up - owners of the ‘93 Taurus understand what we mean here.

Still, this is all promising news for 2010. Keep sending us stories, folks, and we’ll keep reporting ‘em. There might be a list in the works, too…

The Solar Decathlon is this weekend! Yaaay! We’re heading down there on Saturday to check out the proceedings and take some pictures for a full report here on Corn Car, so keep your eyes here for that.

In the meantime, we promised a list of ways to introduce cellulosic ethanol to the mainstream. This was before we realized that we’d previously made a list of how to sell automakers on the idea, which is pretty similar. But we’ve still got some ideas that break away into their own category:
1. Park cellulose-fueled cars at Wal-Mart, Target, and other discount department stores. Wal-Mart and its ilk are where Middle America shops, if their corporate propaganda tells it right, and flex-fuels are still seen as uppity for reasons we’re still not clear on. Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt for people to see those cars around places where “ordinary” Americans go, just to prove the point that this technology isn’t leverage in some weird, beside-the-point class struggle.

2. Establish that pot and beer can fuel cars. This was the intern’s idea, so blame him, but there is merit in explaining that cellulosic ethanol can be made from nearly anything. Molson Coors already used their waste beer to fuel vehicles for the last Democratic National Convention, so the precedent has been set. Inserting pot into the equation will draw crazy people, but it’s still an ordinary facet of American life that can make cellulosic ethanol more approachable, and it deflates the anti-corn people who think we’re stealing ethanol stock from famine-ravaged Africans.

3. Hot girls. Another intern suggestion, but he’s right; hot girls can sell anything.

4. Auto racing, which has been underway for more than a year now. Racing is a great venue for showcasing flex-fuels, and Indy cars have been using methanol since the 1960s. Switching over to cellulosic ethanol would help out a lot, and already has: a biobutanol/ethanol blend car was raced at Petiti Le Mans last month.

5. No, seriously, hot girls.

Way back in May of last year, we laughed off the prospect of a chocolate-fueled car in our List of Things that Wouldn’t be Powering Cars Any Time Soon.

Well boy, are our faces red. Turns out a group of plucky young squires from Warwick University have designed a chocolate-powered race car. Really.

According to a write-up from Jalopnik, “its body is made of potatoes, the steering wheel is carrots,” referring to the recycled plant and fruit fibers/extracts used to build it, “and the fuel is derived from chocolate.” And it works, too; the car can hit 145 mph and apparently corners like a champ.

So we have to scratch chocolate off that list of ours. Anyone got any ideas for something to replace it?

Even though Ford is hiking their base-level ethanol blend to circumvent expensive testing, and even though they’re shy about admitting that they’ve even gone that far, we’re still pleased that they’re taking this step towards more responsible energy use. It’s certainly in keeping with the company statement about flex-fuel vehicles; Ford has made more than 1.6 million of them since 1996, and their Model T was the first flex-fuel vehicle ever made, running as it did on any combination of gasoline, ethanol, or caramelized hate distilled from the brain of Henry Ford.

Of course, more recently, Ford’s environmental record has been, erm, mixed, to say the least. And their products are bearing a similar cross - hell, they’ve built marketing campaigns on the admission that their cars are shit. So whether or not this is an honest effort to move forward or an end-run around economic reality can’t be determined. Again, we’re glad that Ford is refocusing their commitment to flex-fuel vehicles, but it had better be genuine. All it would take is one battery of product recalls (like the ones for the Ford Escape) to make flex-fuel cars unpalatable for another 30 years.