Automakers say they will offer a range of energy-efficient hybrid vehicles, including sport utility vehicles (SUVs), by the end of the year.

Hybrid cars combine a gas burning engine with an electric motor to power the vehicle. Hybrids are 20 to 50 per cent more fuel efficient than traditional gas-powered vehicles.

Honda Insight hybrid
Honda Insight hybrid

The Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight are the two best-selling hybrid cars in North America. Toyota has sold about 120,000 Priuses since it was introduced three years ago and about 2,000 Insights are sold every month.

"We are certainly attracting people who are green and more environmentally oriented," says Robert Bienenfeld of Honda. "We just don't want to run out of those customers...we want the base to broaden to a mass market."

Owners of foreign-made hybrids staged a rally at a recent auto show in Los Angeles, demanding North American automakers get on the wagon.

GM and Suzuki announced in September they would build a hybrid truck at a plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.

The plant will produce the Chevrolet Equinox, a compact SUV which will debut in 2005.

"The bottom line is that foreign automakers are making the case that not only can you capture market share and be very profitable, you can also bring green technologies to market," says Jason Mark of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Detroit has got to get on board if they're going to be selling cars in this century, later in this century."

The Big Three Automakers say they will tailor their green vehicles to North American tastes by offering hybrid trucks and SUVs.

Ford officials say their hybrid SUV should be in showrooms by the end of the year. Chrysler says it will have a hybrid truck.

Automakers say the price of hybrids may make the vehicles a harder sell but with oil prices going up, fuel efficiency may attract more buyers.