Sherry Borschert, President of the San Fransisco Electric Vehicle Association demonstrates her all electric vehicle and lists how a car like hers is beneficial.

Ford announced yesterday that it was offering five-year, interest-free loans on its Escape Hybrid after seeing a double-digit sales jump in a month-long trial run of the deal in Washington, D.C. and California.

While the 36-mpg-averaging Escape Hybrid is no Prius, Ford's willingness to forego a chunk of profit (financing is one of Ford's major revenue sources) and Americans' interest in jumping on the hybrid bandwagon are promising signs: 1,441 Escape Hybrids were sold in March alone.

OK, I’ll admit it: On more than one occasion, I have put my beloved Toyota Prius into reverse and come uncomfortably close to running over a few bystanders. It wasn’t because I didn’t see them (I swear!) it’s because they didn’t see -- or, to be more precise, hear -- me. While operating on its electric battery, my car is silent as a shooting star, so the pedestrians waltzed right into my line of fire, having no audible warning that I was approaching.

Good news for clean-energy optimists: The dramatic array of lean, green driving machines on display at the Tokyo Auto Show recently provided ample evidence that humanity can, indeed, innovate its way out of environmental problems. Once every two years, major players in the auto industry convene in Tokyo to give the public a glimpse of their most futuristic automotive designs—dazzling concept cars that look borrowed from the set of The Matrix or swiped from the garage of George Jetson.

This year they all had one thing in common, aside from snazzy space-pod designs: fabulous fuel economy.