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Driving greener
It's no surprise that Amory Lovins owns a hybrid. The shocker is that the environmental advocate and physicist — who co-wrote Winning the Oil Endgame and helped to green up Wal-Mart — would rather be driving a midsize SUV. Of course, it would have to be Hypercar, an ultralight concept vehicle he invented in 1991. We asked him about his mission to evolve cars.

Q: Do cars have a weight problem?
A: Every day, cars use about 100 times their weight in ancient plants; only 0.3 percent of that fuel energy ends up moving the driver. After 122 years of engineering effort, that's not very gratifying. But if you make cars out of carbon fiber thermoplastic composites, half the weight and half the fuel use disappear.

Q: Can ultralight cars be safe with heavy vehicles on the road?
A: These materials absorb 12 times the crash energy per pound that steel does. And the side-stick controls make Hypercar easier to drive because you don't have to coordinate eyes, hands, and feet.

Q: How soon could Hypercar be a real option?
A: If anyone decided to make it, you could see early market introductions in four or five years.

Q: Why is a hybrid your choice for right now?
A: Driven properly, hybrids double efficiency. You accelerate briskly rather than slowly. That's not what we were taught in Driver's Ed.

— Brian Case