By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

The idea of spending less on gas seems to be driving far more people into the green car ranks than the idea that you are doing something good for the planet and those who occupy it.

We can see this pretty clearly in the astonishing growth of small car sales in the U.S. – hardly anyone was buying them a few years ago and last month they accounted for a record 22.6 percent of the new car market, according to Edmunds.com's market analysts.

Meantime, large trucks' market share plunged to just 11 percent, down from a high three years ago of 19 percent.

Small used to mean cheap. Now it means fuel efficient (although not all small cars are particularly miserly with gas). And as compacts and subcompacts continue to capture market share, look for automakers to start piling high-margin luxury goodies into their small cars as they seek ways to replace the profits they used to book from truck sales.

Hybrids Rising Too

We can also see concern about fuel prices in the steady rise of hybrid sales – they accounted for a record 3.2 percent of the market in April, with Toyota's Prius the month's 10th best-selling model of any type.

That hybrids are increasing their market penetration even though they cost more than comparably equipped conventional versions of the same models (except the Toyota Prius, which has no conventional counterpart) is testimony to people's desire to pare their fuel bills.

Just a year or so ago, the Prius was the only hybrid with a reasonable chance of providing sufficient fuel savings to pay back the so-called hybrid premium – the price a hybrid purchaser pays to get a car or SUV with two powertrains and enough complex electronics to make a NASA engineer jealous.

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A fierce battle among Japanese automakers is likely to be staged during the Group of Eight summit in Japan this July, with carmakers using the session as a showcase for their fuel-efficient cars, including hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.

Toyota,  Mitsubishi and other automakers will provide about 100 fuel-efficient cars to transport participants at the summit meeting, The Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, reports in Tuesday's edition.

Toyota will provide about 80 hybrid cars, including luxury Lexus models, minivans and compact cars for participants making short trips around the venue. The company also is planning to provide plug-in hybrid electric cars for participants' use.

Mitsubishi will be holding test rides of its iMIEV battery-powered city car. Mazda reportedly will make a hydrogen-fueled sports car available for use. Honda is considering providing hybrid and fuel-cell cars for participants' use.

Environmental problems will be one of the major topics at this year's summit. The G8 countries consist of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Scott Doggett, Contributor

Challenge wants to encourage more cars like Audi's clean-diesel racer.

DETROIT -- The American Le Mans Series, already a showcase for diesel power and ethanol-blend fuel, will inaugurate a "Green Racing Challenge" this year encouraging automakers to put developing  environmental and fuel economy technologies to the test on the track.

Scott Atherton, ALMS chief executive, said at a press conference at the Detroit auto show that the series has formed a green racing coalition with the federal Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Society of Automotive Engineers International, to develop criteria for the Challenge.

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