Since the majority of our readers either own a hybrid vehicle or have begun the process of researching them, we set out to determine which car insurance companies are passing some green savings on to their most eco-friendly drivers.

Travelers (NYSE: TRV) is a Fortune 500 insurance company that offers just about every type of insurance you might need. According to their website, they were the first company in the United States to issue an auto insurance policy - way back in 1897. Although their main website is at Travelers.com, they also have a site designed exclusively for hybrid vehicle owners which to my surprise also includes electric and hybrid boats and yachts. Who knew? Check out HybridTravelers.com to see if you qualify for a 10% discount on your coverage.

NetQuote.com is well-known online insurance portal that offers quotes on auto, home, health, business and life insurance. While NetQuote doesn’t actually provide the insurance coverage, they work with providers such as Allstate, Farmers, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual and Progressive.  You can find more information about their auto insurance discounts and benefits for hybrid cars on this NetQuote landing page, where they mention up to 10% discounts for those who qualify.

If you live in the U.K., one option you have to insure your hybrid car, truck or SUV is The Green Insurance Company. Unlike the typical 5% or 10% savings you might find in the United States, this company offers incentives as much as 22% less than what non-hybrid owners might pay. From their website, you will “benefit from a low emission discount and 100% carbon offset of your cars CO2 emissions at no extra cost”. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds cheap enough!

For those living in Canada and driving a hybrid vehicle, there is an insurance company called TD Insurance Meloche Monnex (website) that includes 10% off insurance premiums as long as your green car is recognized by the Vehicle Information Centre of Canada (VCC). Ontario residents get a 5% discount instead, which I thought was part of Canada. Lastly, residents of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are not eligible. What? Does anyone in Canada qualify?

Own a hybrid? Go get your online quote at one of these sites today? If you know of other insurance providers that give a break to green drivers, please add a comment below.

A couple of newly introduced green cars helped to drive a higher percentage of hybrid customers to dealerships in ‘09, despite a drop in total auto sales. Even so, hybrids accounted for just 2.8% of the total market, meaning less than 3 out of every 100 new cars sold carried a hybrid-electric sticker. Sales of some hybrids remained really low, including the Saturn Aura and a couple of expensive Lexus models.

It has always been a race for second place in this market. Aside from the Prius - the Camry, Insight, Civic and Fusion were the only other hybrids that topped 10,000 sales each last year.  Motortrend  didn’t waste any time choosing the Fusion as their favorite of the remaining contenders.  With some nifty options, an attractive interior, and a cool SmartGauge cluster/dashboard featuring a growing vine - some are anticipating the Fusion will finish second in hybrid sales during 2010. 

Another rookie to the game this year, but no stranger to being hybrid, was the Honda’s Insight.  With a price tag substantially less than its adversaries, it was coined as the new “Prius Killer” . In addition to being more affordable, Honda’s newest addition helps drivers achieve environmentally responsible driving with a new driving support function to achieve ultimate fuel efficiency.

Even with advances by Honda and Ford, Toyota still stands to be in the untouchable position of hybrid market leader in 2010 and undoubtedly moving forward. With 500,000 battery assisted cars and crossovers sold in the last year  alone (see autoblog), it’s easy to see how.

Below were the top selling hybrid cars for 2009. This list does not include hybrid trucks or sport utility vehicles.

Toyota Prius - 139,700
Toyota Camry - 22,890
Honda Insight - 20,570
Ford Fusion - 15,550
Honda Civic - 15,120
Nissan Altima - 9,360
Chevy Malibu - 4,160

View the 2009 top selling hybrid SUVs.

Above data was estimated from this Hybrid Cars article. Their dashboard is updated monthly and is a great resource.

Many of you who live on the East Coast are also relearning how to drive on snow and ice. With this weekend’s snowstorm dumping 10 to 20 plus inches in Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and surrounding states - road conditions are poor at best. And with well over a million Toyota Prius on U.S. roadways, I have lots of company sharing my hybrid driving experience.

I’ll admit that I debated even buying a new Prius because I wasn’t sure how it would handle the snowy roads, but it had nothing to do with it being a hybrid-electric vehicle. My concern was mainly about moving from a 4 wheel drive truck with 10″ of ground clearance to a 2 wheel drive car with about 5″. Right before the blizzard hit, I decided to do a few online searches to see what others were saying. That’s when I discovered there is a lot of debate surrounding how the Prius does in snow and in cold weather driving.

On sites like PriusChat.com and GreenHybrid.com, most of the negative comments center around poor traction from the Prius’ stock (factory OEM) tires, a big drop in fuel economy, and issues with the traction control reportedly causing the Prius to stop on slippery hills. Comments are all over the board, ranging from those who claim the Prius is one of the best FWD small cars they have driven in snow to those who say it’s nearly useless. The majority of people commenting on these forums own a second generation Prius (2004-2009 model years) but my guess is the ride is similar in the 2010 Prius 3.

Although I have less than 2 weeks of experience driving my Prius in the snow, I’ve been impressed with how well it’s done so far. I don’t see any major traction issues yet, but I haven’t had to climb any large hills either. Most of my winter driving with the Prius has been in town as well. What I have noticed more than anything is the big change in gas mileage. For the first 10,000 miles I averaged 50 m.p.g. in my 3rd generation Prius. Driving on snow and in temperatures ranging from zero to 32 degrees (Fahrenheit), I am averaging only 37 miles per gallon. Again, some of that has to do with the fact that I haven’t been on the highway during this time, but it is still about 10 mpg less than what I got during the summer and fall. From what I’ve read, a 20% drop in fuel economy is normal for most cars under these driving conditions.

If you own a Prius, we’d love to hear how yours handles in the snow!

In addition to allegations of this cover up, the insider also claimed that the United States (government I assume) has been inflluential in making sure the IEA underplayed the oil shortage while overplaying the odds of discovering new, untapped oil reserves. What’s more, another former IEA source (who also was unwilling to devulge his name) said the situation is “really bad”. He added that we have already reached peak oil and that there is not as much oil as the IEA previously reported.

The IEA released its 2009 World Energy Outlook this week and in a nutshell admitted that current energy plans are unsustainable. Demand for primary energy is expected to increase by 40% over the next 20 years, and the demand for oil will increase by nearly 25% during that same period. But the real shock was the anticipated increase in need for electricity - up more than 75% by 2030.

Crude oil prices are near their 12 month high right now, around $80 per barrel. The price has roughly doubled since February and we’ve been on a steady climb upwards for most of the year (in part due to the value of the U.S. dollar). Even though the sting of $140 barrels and $5 per gallon gas in 2008 has subsided, it seems like only a matter of time before new highs could be tested. What impact this will have on hybrid electric and all electric vehicles remains to be seen, but I think it is safe to say that the IEA would be betting on increased demand.

Following the unveiling of the vastly popular third-generation Prius, Toyota is releasing a second hybrid-only sedan, the Toyota “Sai”. By most accounts, the Sai is being viewed as a slightly smaller, less expensive version of the Lexus HS 250h. You be the judge. The Sai is pictured to the right and the HS 250h is below.

Pronounced “sigh” or “cy”, this hybrid debuted at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show and could be available for purchase in Japan as early as December (2009). It has the same green drivetrain as its more luxurious Lexus lookalike, a 2.4 liter Atkinson engine, an electric motor and a nickle hydride battery - rated at 187 horsepower. Although rumored to get 54 miles per gallon, expect the Sai to get only slightly better gas mileage than the 250h; around 35-40 mpg. The lighter 2010 Prius with a smaller 1.8 liter engine averages about 50 m.p.g. as a comparison.

According to Automotive News (subs req) Toyota has set an initial goal of selling 36,000 Sai per year and the price is expected to begin at about $37,000 U.S. dollars. That may seem aggressive when you consider that the Sai isn’t expected to be coming to the United States anytime soon, but Japan is a huge market for hybrids so we will know more after the rollout. Keep in mind, the Camry hybrid isn’t sold in Japan so if buyers there want a larger hybrid sedan this may fill a niche between affordability and size.

You can get a glimpse of the Toyota Sai along with several other cars on display at the Tokyo Motor Show by watching the short Edmunds video below.

Official Sai data from Toyota here

In case you’re wondering, it apparently stands for Compact Renaissance Zero which fully explains why CR-Z is better (on a side note, my wife drives a CR-V, which is either a Compact Recreational Vehicle or a Comfortable Runabout Vehicle…so you can see how the naming works). Nonetheless, we should know a lot more about the second redesign of this vehicle as it will be reintroduced at this month’s Tokyo Motor Show. You might recall that it was at this same show in 2007 that we first got a glimpse of design one.

Remember the CRX? How about the Del Sol and the original Honda Insight? Honda has been instrumental in putting trendy 2-seaters on the road for many years and the CRZ has the potential to be their most impressive one yet. One unique feature of this small hybrid sports car is that it has a six speed manual transmission (a hybrid-electric first). This will be joined with a 1.5 liter (i-VTEC) four cylinder engine and an electric motor.

No reports yet on what kind of fuel economy the CR-Z might get, but based on its size and technology I would expect to see it come in around 40-45 MPG in combined city and highway driving. As far as price, again nobody really knows. If I had to guess, I’d say a little more than the Insight and a bit less than the hybrid Civic…so around $24,000 might be close.

Already there are tons of pictures online, and we will obviously have more in 2 weeks or so. I haven’t yet found a video, but one is sure to be in the works on You Tube, so I’ll post it here when it pops up (note - the photo to the left is how the CR-Z concept hybrid looked when it originally debuted back in 2007). More specs and news to follow!

Other Honda CR-Z Resources:

Official website from Honda

Press release from 2007

2008 press release

If you are considering the purchase of a hybrid vehicle, there are lots of great websites where you can do your research. Some of the best (in no particular order) include edmunds.com, jalopnik.com, hybridcars.com, motortrend.com, automotive.com, cnet.com, motherproof.com, and there are dozens more. Even our parent company (Hybrid Kingdom) has over fifty niche hybrid and green vehicle online properties, including hybridsuv.com.

At the same time, if you want to save yourself hours of research, you can get all your hybrid information in one place for less than $15. The Hybrid Vehicle Guide gives you a straight forward review of every new hybrid car, truck, and sport utility vehicle you can buy right now. Since it’s recent update, several hundred copies have been downloaded.

From the following table of contents, you can see the vehicles included in this year’s edition of the hybrid ebook:

Table of Contents

2010 Toyota Prius
2010 Honda Civic Hybrid
2010 Honda Insight
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid
2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid
2010 Lexus HS 250h
2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid
2010 Ford Escape Hybrid
2010 Mercury Mariner Hybrid
2009 Mazda Tribute Hybrid
2010 Lexus RX 450h (and the 400h)
2009 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
2009 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid
2009 Lexus LS 600h L
2009 GMC Sierra Hybrid
2009 GMC Yukon Hybrid
2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid
Discontinued Hybrid Vehicles
Current Hybrids with an Uncertain Future

When you purchase the Hybrid Guide, you will also receive free updates for as long as it is published. Even if you aren’t planning to buy a new car in in the next 12 months, you will continue to get updated information as new hybrids reach dealer showrooms, for as long as you remain interested.

Admittedly, you aren’t going to find anything in this hybrid manual that you couldn’t get elsewhere online for free. The value of this book is in it’s convenience and your ability to compare all the new hybrids in one place, quickly and easily. This includes price, fuel economy, class, drivetrain, packages, options, advantages & disadvantages, cargo room, and links to other sources of online information for each vehicle.

The guide is concise, so when you are ready - print it and take it with you to your local dealership. You’ll have the facts in your hand, and knowledge is power…especially when buying a car.

Lastly, if you order the hybrid car guide and don’t find it to be worth your investment, it comes with a full money back guarantee. Save yourself some time and buy your copy here today. You will be glad you did…guaranteed!

Although the 3rd generation Prius comes with a few more standard luxury features, the new Insight starts at a lower MSRP of only $19,800 with upgradeable models listed at just $23,100. In comparison the Prius has a starting MSRP of $22,000 and can climb north of $30,000 with all the goodies. However, the Insight does have a lower MPG rating of 40/43 compared to the Prius at 51/48 (and 2010 hybrid Fusion at about 41 miles per gallon). It should be noted that many of the road tests conducted by consumers got a better MPG rating than that of the EPA (although the same could be said for new hybrids from Toyota and Ford).

With a 1.3 liter VTEK four-cylinder engine and Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist System, the Insight offers a fairly smooth and quiet driving experience. Rated at 98 horsepower and 123 pounds-feet of torque, the Insight utilizes its’ electric engine when stopped and at speeds up to around 30 mph. The dashboard provides drivers with a high-tech Eco-assist system in which the background color of the speedometer turns from blue to green as mileage improves. In addition to the eco-assist, you can also utilize the Eco-guide which is a nifty little game that adds graphic tree leaves as you improve and keeps tabs on your daily driving and overall “lifetime” score.

The interior of the Insight begins with a dash forward design, mainly to give front passengers more room and comfort. The back seat can realistically seat three children or two adults, but complaints have been made about the lack of headroom for taller people, with most mentioning a problem if you are over 6 feet in height. Cargo space is 15.9 cubic feet, quite a bit larger than other several previous hybrids on the market; however, the back seats do not fold completely down, which can create a bit of a problem when transporting larger items. One nice feature, uncommon with other hybrids, is the Insights’ lift-up handles as opposed to the larger, more SUV like handles we’ve grown accustomed to on vehicles in this class. And with rear tinted windows and LED taillights, the Insight has some rather impressive design features for such an inexpensive green car.
 
The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety (IIHS) crash test ratings for the 2010 Insight were recently released with a good performance rating in front, side, and rear tests with optional electronic stability control. NHTSA rated the Insight a perfect 5 of 5 on the front driver impact, 4 out of 5 on the passenger side and 4 out of 5 on rollover, which gives it an overall safety rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

So, do you own one of these insightful rides? If so, add a comment below and tell us what you think!

Other 2010 Honda Insight Reviews and Resources:

Honda Insight versus Fit
Honda Insight versus Toyota Prius

Edmunds
USA Today
CNET
Jalopnik

With a range of 100 miles per charge and the ability to be fully recharged in about 30 minutes (where quick recharge stations are available), the Leaf could be an early leader in the EV world. And with its’ 207 pounds of torque and 107 hp electric motor, Nissan’s Leaf can reach top speeds of about 90 miles per hour with more get-up and go power than that of the Infiniti G37.

Pricing has not yet been announced, but Nissan has stated that it will be similar to that of other C-class European electrics. Although European compacts are generally better equipped and more expensive, one could speculate the Leaf will have a U.S. price of $28,000 to $35,000. However, this does not include government incentives from the federal clean car credit program, which could knock the cost down by as much as $10,000 if funding is still available.

In an idea as unique as the Leaf itself, Nissan, rather than selling the rechargeable battery, which accounts for almost $10,000 of the Leaf’s price may instead be leasing it. Similar to the fact that consumers don’t pay upfront for the gas a vehicle uses when they buy a new car, Nissan is considering leasing the EV battery rather than selling it with the vehicle.

In the U.S., where consumers are not as familiar or comfortable with purchasing EV vehicles, Nissan may be leaning toward marketing Leaves as leased vehicles rather than green cars you would buy. Whether or not Nissan will be selling or leasing the Leaf, as well as the actual MSRP are two announcements we may not get until we draw closer to the late 2010 release date, said Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Senior Vice President. The release of the Leaf will make Nissan the first major auto manufacturer to offer a full-service battery-electric car for retail sales in U.S. dealerships.

In an effort to make using an EV vehicle as easy and effortless for consumers as possible, the Leaf’s navigation system displays one-way and round-trip travel ranges the car is capable of before recharging. It also sends a message to your phone or PDA when the vehicle is plugged into a home or public charging station letting consumers know when their vehicle is fully-charged and ready to hit the road again.

The test model released in Japan last month is said to be almost identical to the actual model that will be launched at the end of ‘10. Available in only a blue color for now, Nissan has released photos of the prototype for public viewing on their website and they will continue to post updates as they become available. We will do the same, but I have to admit…this model of vehicle electrification looks a lot more futuristic than my 3rd generation Prius.

So, what kind of gas mileage do you think this vehicle will get? Unlike hybrid cars, phevs, and still others that can run on gas or battery power (i.e. Chevy’s Volt) - this one is going to take some getting used to…since it won’t use any gas at all, and it couldn’t use any even if you wanted it to. Mileage might be measured in CPM (cost per mile, cents per mile) but in won’t be MPH. Then when we want to compare fuel efficiency of 2 or more cars, we will need a new calculator or conversion method. This is going to get confusing, but it will be worth it. Go Big Green!

So, why on Earth would anyone in the U.S. or elsewhere ever want to pay more for gas than they already do? Well, according to some, higher fuel costs would actually be good for the environment and for mankind.

On one hand, paying more at the pump can be horrible and stressful. When gas was $4 or $5 a gallon in 2008, many people avoided trips that weren’t absolutely necessary. I remember in some states there were even gas shortages again, like they had in the 1970’s, where people lined up for the opportunity to fill their gas tanks only to find the station was dry when they got close.

So, why would we want to wish that situation on ourselves again? Maybe because in some cases, higher gas prices eventually cause people to change their driving habits for the better. For example, rather than bury the accelerator when the light flicked to green, you saw people start to take more than 8 seconds to go from zero to sixty. And, you didn’t have so many people taking a “Sunday drive” just because they had nothing better to do. (Maybe a few even went for a walk or bike ride instead.)

Now that the U.S. government has purchased 700,000 older cars for about $2.9 billion dollars via the Cash For Clunkers program, many Americans find themselves behind the wheel of a car that gets much better gas mileage than their old model. Rather than spending $40 at the pump three times a week, they’ve traded for more fuel efficient models. According to recently released data, those who participated improved their gas mileage by a whopping 61%. But will it have an impact?

On the other side of the argument are the environmentalists, who sadly remind us that even with all the trade-ins for the ‘Cash For Clunkers’ and even with the nice improvement in gas mileage, cars account for so little of our overall pollution in this U.S. that the Clunkers program only saved us 57 minutes of pollution output over the course of one year. The program might save us 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide; however, Americans produces 728,000 tons of waste per hour. So, even though the program seems like a valiant effort to improve gas consumption it doesn’t change the fact the carbon dioxide emissions makes up only a small portion of the pollution released in the United States. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it seems that three quarters of a million drivers will save a few bucks every time they fill up now, so how can that be bad for anyone (except maybe big oil companies)?

Is paying a little more at the pump good or bad then? Depends who you ask. Both sides can be argued, but it does appear that as gas prices rise a little, searches for hybrid, electric, and more fuel-efficient gas and diesel cars go up. So do sales of those vehicles, while sales of gas guzzlers drop. It almost seems like there might be a favorable range in gas prices that most people could agree upon. If I had to be the first to guess where that might be, I’d say somewhere between $2 and $3 per gallon is where I am most comfortable. I don’t like to see gas at $1.50 and I remember that when it edged above $3, that’s when things got a little ugly.

In case you are interested in the Cash For Clunkers final results, I found the following recap here.

Top ten vehicles purchased under the program:

1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus FWD
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Nissan Versa
7. Toyota Prius
8. Honda Accord
9. Honda Fit
10. Ford Escape FWD

Top ten vehicles traded in under the program:

1. Ford Explorer 4WD
2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
4. Ford Explorer 2WD
5. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD
6. Jeep Cherokee 4WD
7. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
8. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
9. Ford F150 Pickup 4WD
10. Ford Windstar FWD Van

Average new-vehicle mileage: 24.9 miles per gallon
Average clunker mileage: 15.8 miles per gallon
Increase: 9.1 miles per gallon