Green tinge at the LA Autoshow (photos)

I went to the LA Autoshow yesterday with the aim of documenting the progress on the electrification of transport. I spoke to a few people as well. Some notes:

1. Fuel efficiency was prominent but the emphasis is on the aesthetics, comfort etc.
2. Every major manufacturer had a hybrid and/or electric on display.
3. Atleast one automaker (Hyundai) thought that talking about Carbon offsets will attract customers. (even though their vehicles themselves were not as green as I expected. They had no PHEV on display that I remember).
4. The Mitsubishi vehicle is designed to act as a generator to feed back energy to home other appliances. Their staff didnt know whether they had done surveys before adding that feature.
5. There were a couple of Natural gas vehicles but they were clearly deemphasized.

I test drove Ford Fusion Hybrid Electric vehicle. It felt as comfortable as other vehicles. It was quiet and smooth. I drove 1.5 miles at 36 mi/gallon efficiency, worked completely from the battery with no consumption of fuel. There was nice animation on the dashboard where you see green leaves increasing as the drive becomes more efficient. One of the staff described it as a "game" where you nudge the user driving behavior in such a way that it reduces CO2.