Green Options

Italdesign, the Italian design firm responsible for the development of dozens of Lamborghini, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo production cars over the past 40 years, has announced plans to bring what it calls “the world’s fastest hybrid” to this year’s 2009 Geneva show, which will also be hosting the debut of the hotly-anticipated ethanol Bentley supercar.

Photos and speculation after the jump.

Editor’s note: Jo is our newest addition to the Gas 2.0 team. He’s written for us before as a guest writer, but this marks his transition to full fledged writer status. We’re pleased to have him on board. Welcome Jo!

Envied worldwide for producing feather-lite supercars just itching to be made into electric torque monsters (even Tesla has borrowed heavily from the Lotus parts bin), Lotus has indicated it wants to enter the world of exotic electric cars itself - perhaps even as soon as late 2009.

Ever since the late Colin Chapman began building his own sportscars under the Lotus brand (way back in 1952!) the company has followed a simple philosophy for its go-fast racers: add lightness.  “Adding lightness” meant that Chapman’s cars were incredibly efficient - using less fuel and fewer tires than the competition.

Looking for a sweet ride that can get you infinity miles per gallon? Check out the Eco-Chic Fisker Karma, a luxury sports sedan capable of 50 miles of emissions free-driving on one overnight charge.

This sexy-looking sports car, which I stumbled upon at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this week, uses the same kind of technology as the lusted-after Chevy Volt. Both cars use a purely electric drive train for the first 40-50 miles of driving, then switch to a small gasoline engine that recharges the lithium ion battery pack for longer drives. This means that if you drive less than 50 miles per day, you’ll only need to refill the tank once per year.