We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

Whoa boy. According to Reuters, Fisker has been denied some $33 million in damages by its insurance company, XL Group PLC, for 338 Karma sedans that were destroyed by Superstorm Sandy while at port in New Jersey. Not surprisingly, Fisker is suing the insurer, which is based in Dublin, Ireland but has offices in the US.

According to the report, the policy Fisker had obtained from XL covered the automaker for damages up to $100 million. At issue are important details that include "whether the cars were in "transit," and which sublimits may apply, if any," according to David Klein, a partner at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, in a phone interview with Reuters.

Fisker's 338 Karma sedans are just a few of the estimated 10,000 vehicles destroyed at the shipping facility in New Jersey. Total vehicular losses from Sandy, both new and used, are thought to have crested 200,000 units.

Picture the scene: You're in a quiet place; a forest. The grass is green, the sky a perfect shade of blue. It's sunny; the temperature is hovering somewhere near perfect and a gentle breeze wafts by. You look at the pretty flowers – bend down to reach one... then, BAM!

No, we're not talking about Bambi versus Godzilla – though we do offer Marv Newland a healthy round of applause. What's we're talking about is the Lexus GS Hybrid. Or, more specifically, the car's Italian advertising campaign as seen in the video below.

Lexus claims its 2013 GS 450h can accelerate from 0 to 60 in just 5.6 seconds, courtesy of its 3.5-liter V6 engine and electric motor hybrid powertrain that puts out a combined 338 horsepower. Combine that level of thrust with rear-wheel drive and a professional driver and you've got yourself some fun at the race track.

Lexus decided to put this combination together, mixing in a blend of new-car shoppers to see what effect its hybrid sedan had on the heart. Scroll down below to watch it all unfold.

Lexus has officially slapped a window sticker on its 2013 ES 350 sedan and ES 300h hybrid. Unlike most new car and truck refreshes, this one comes with a bit of a pricing shocker: the 2013 Lexus ES 350 has been priced at $36,100* – a decrease of 1.7 percent compared to the 2012 ES sedan. (Add delivery charges of $895 to all listed prices.)

That asking price will net the driver a 268-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine (248 pound-feet of torque) and a six-speed automatic sending power to the front wheels. The EPA estimates that combo is good for 21 miles per gallon city, 31 highway and 24 combined.

Want something a little more... electric? Checking the box for the ES 300h and its 2.5-liter engine/electric motor hybrid combination will run you $2,750 over the base ES, the lowest hybrid price premium Lexus has. Those $38,850 bring fuel mileage figures of 40 mpg city, 39 mpg highway and 40 mpg combined courtesy of its 200 total horses. Drivers can also engage an EV mode that keeps the gas-powered engine off at low speeds for short distances.

Want to know more about the 2013 ES? Click here for our detailed First Drive report, then scroll down for the official pricing press release.

Stop us if you've heard this one: Toyota has just launched a campaign to have voters decide on the accepted plural of the word Prius. Sound familiar? It should – well over a year ago, Toyota was knee-deep in this same exact campaign. In case you don't recall, popular vote favored Prii. We... didn't, and honestly still don't. But that's beside the point.

So, what's with the marketing recycle bin? Apparently, the first round of votes were for the U.S. only. Now, the British guys and gals apparently want in on the name game. The choices offered by the automaker are exactly the same as before: Priuses, Prium, Pries, Prii, Prien and simply, Prius.

Toyota is looking to emphasis the different variations of the Prius that are offered around the world, including the standard model, the Prius+ (Prius V in the U.S.) and the plug-in Prius. Freel free to scroll down below to watch a video promoting the contest, but be warned: there's a catchy jingle that may be in your head for the next several hours.

With apologies to the Beatles, it's been a long and winding road for those waiting to get their hands on the steering wheel of a small, diesel-powered pickup from Mahindra. Here's the good news: Something definitive has finally been heard from the Indian automaker. Here's the bad news: It's bad news.

According to Reuters, Mahindra "recently decided not to proceed further with the project due to changes in the U.S. regulatory and market situation." In other words, the truck we've long been expecting isn't going to happen. That said, "M&M will continue to monitor the U.S. situation and remain flexible with its approach to this market."

We won't outline all the sordid details on what happened between Global Vehicles, Mahindra and its would-be dealer base – read all about it on these pages – but suffice it to say delays were felt, feelings were hurt and lawsuits were filed.

Some analysts quoted by Reuters suggest Mahindra may regroup and focus on bringing its Korean Ssangyong subsidiary to the States in lieu of its rugged pickup and SUV wares, but we're not holding our breath for either.

'Your mileage may vary.'

We're all used to seeing those words at the end of any advertisement that mentions fuel mileage, and we all know what it means: Not all drivers will get exactly the same mileage, and oftentimes what you get will be lower than what it says on the car's window sticker.

That explanation may not hold water with Louis Bird of Sacramento, California, owner of a 2011 Hyundai Elantra.

"I feel like Hyundai took advantage of me. Hyundai's advertisements about the '40 MPG' gas mileage of the Elantra instantly caught my attention. I bought the car thinking I would be seeing major savings at the pump and getting over 500 miles per tank, but Hyundai fooled me... I have not saved any money on gas and have been driving the Elantra for well over a year now. It is frustrating and disappointing. I never would have bought the Elantra in the first place if I hadn't seen Hyundai's ads boasting about gas mileage."

Bird is representing consumers in a class-action lawsuit in California that "seeks to stop Hyundai from illegally using gas mileage numbers in its advertising of the Elantra without government-mandated disclosures." Naturally, damages are being sought for owners of 2011 and 2012 Elantra models. As you can see above, the 2013 Elantra is still advertised with a 40-mpg rating on the highway.

From what we can tell, Consumer Watchdog, the organization that brought the lawsuit, is alleging that Hyundai failed to "disclose certain information when mileage estimates [were] provided in their advertisements," thereby deceiving consumers into thinking the Elantra would provide better mileage than its competitors.

Scroll down for the press release from Consumer Watchdog and a response we received from the automaker. We've also included some video advertisements for the Elantra. So far, we've been unable to find any ourselves that don't include the expected asterisks and disclaimers, and Hyundai says it has "reviewed [its] ads and think Consumer Watchdog and their client are dead wrong."

According to a report from Reuters, lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems is dangerously low on cash. The company filed a report just before the weekend with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that it "expects to have approximately four to five months of cash to support its ongoing operations."

The company says it spends between $18 million and $25 million per month in normal operational costs, and had about $68 million on hand at the end of May. In the same filing, A123 outlined plans to raise $39 million in an effort to remain afloat while it attempts to locate new business and shore up its finances. The company expects to turn a positive cash flow on a quarterly basis sometime in 2013.

A123 has major contracts with automakers such as Fisker and BMW, the former of which was involved in a massive battery recall that is said to have cost A123 nearly $67 million. The upcoming Chevy Spark EV is also slated to use batteries from A123, assuming the company is able to survive its recent monetary blows.

File this one in the envelope labeled 'Unsurprising'.

BMW has announced, according to Bloomberg, that it is ending its partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroën just eight months after the agreement to collaborate on fuel-efficient vehicles was announced.

Recall that the dual-headed French automaker recently shacked up with General Motors – causing BMW to halt its fuel-cell-development talks with GM – to co-develop future technologies, and BMW announced its intentions to work more closely with Toyota. Reading between the lines, it seemed as if BMW and PSA Peugeot Citroën were content to go their separate ways.

The bits and pieces of the BMW Peugeot Citroën Electrification partnership that have already moved forward will be enveloped by BMW, though it's still unclear what will happen to the joint venture's employees. In any case, don't expect any of these automakers to slow down development of future fuel-efficient technologies.

If you don't want to be hounded by men and women lugging cameras, perhaps it's best not to drive around in an extremely conspicuous-in-chrome Fisker Karma sporting a strip of purple LED lights under the grille. It's kinda hard to miss...

That observation aside, Justin Bieber was recently pulled over by police in California for driving at speeds reportedly exceeding 100 miles per hour – that's 25 mph below the Karma's top speed, in case you were wondering – down the 101 Freeway. The teen singer was cited for reckless driving.

According to the LA Times, Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine witnessed the Biebermobile being chased by paparazzi and called 911. Though Zine doesn't deny that Bieber was being chased, he says it's "no excuse" for reckless driving, saying it reminded him of the "Princess Diana situation" in 1997, when Diana, Princess of Wales, was tragically killed in a traffic accident while the driver was fleeing from pursuing paparazzi.

TMZ reports that Bieber has filed an official complaint against the photographer that was chasing him, giving the license plate number of the car to the officers. Apparently, the offending member of the paparazzi was seen snapping photos of Bieber shortly thereafter while the police were taking a statement from the singer. Sounds pretty brazen, no?

Again we ask: Why drive the chrome Karma if you want to be left alone? It wasn't quite so flashy when he got it.

Perhaps a more mundane Prius would be a better eco-minded choice... and the 911 operator may even know what thatis, unlike the Fisker. Scroll down for a couple videos detailing the incident along with audio of Bieber's 911 call.

BMW and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have announced that the 1 Series ActiveE is being recalled. We don't imagine many of those reading this are owners of the recalled machine since the first ActiveE was just delivered to a paying customer in January of this year and the cars are only available in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, New York, Boston and Hartford, CT, but we thought we'd keep you up to date anyway.

It seems the cars may unexpectedly lose electric steering assistance, which may increase the risk of a crash. The defect will be fixed free of charge, as you would expect, and owners will be receiving notification shortly. Feel free to read through the official recall notice, which also includes some 2012 Z4 models, by scrolling down below.

We've learned to expect that hybrid vehicles will produce lower emissions and fuel-consumption scores than their standard gasoline-burning siblings. What we generally don't expect, however, is for that same hybrid to be quicker to 60 than its turbocharged brother or for it to make more overall horsepower.

Such is the case with the BMW ActiveHybrid 3, which offers up 340 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque from its 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline six and electric motor combination – useful gains from the 300 hp and 300 lb-ft in the 335i. Those added ponies allow the Hybrid 3 to hit 62 miles per hour in just 5.3 seconds, a .2-second improvement, according to the automaker, over the thirstier 335i.

BMW says the Hybrid 3 can travel up to 2.5 miles on electricity alone at speeds of up to 46 miles per hour, though not at the same time, of course, and fuel efficiency of about 40 miles per gallon on the EU test cycle. Expect the U.S. EPA figure to vary from that figure.

A lithium ion battery pack resides in the trunk, and it's made up of 96 individual cells with a rated output of 675 Wh. Power is sent to the rear wheels from the dual drivetrain through an eight-speed automatic gearbox that shares its outer casing with the 55-hp electric motor. Naturally, there's a rather prominent badge on the C-pillar displaying the car's fuel-saving credentials, as you can see in our image gallery above.

Full details can be found in the press release below, but there's still no word on when we can expect to see the ActiveHybrid 3 in the States or what it may cost if and when it arrives.

"Cars have become an appliance... And on top of that, you start feeling a bit guilty about driving a car, because it pollutes, you use a lot of gasoline." These are the words of Henrik Fisker, car designer and the man who startes his eponymous automobile company, which currently builds and sells the extended-range electric Karma.

"Why do electric cars, or small fuel-efficient cars, always have to look dorky? Why can't we make a beautiful, gorgeous car?" Well, if you're the man who penned the BMW Z8 and a couple of show-stopping Aston Martin coupes, you don't have to design a dorky EV. Which explains the sleek lines of the aforementioned Karma and upcoming Fisker Atlantic.

Will Fisker ultimately succeed in establishing a viable automaker that continues to build cars well into the future? Only time will tell. Either way, we have to admire Henrik's bravado. "The doubters out there, they are rarely the builders. And those who are the skeptics, are never really the inventors... There are a lot of us out there who believe that dreams are possible."

Those parting words were spoken as Henrik Fisker laid out what appears to be a two-door sports car with a low-slung profile that would seemingly mesh quite well with the rest of Fisker's eco-conscious machinery. Scroll down below to watch the video, which was shot during his TEDxChapmanU talk.

Nobody ever said that pushing the boundaries of technology was easy. Today's latest crop of hybrid and electric vehicles are highly complicated pieces of machinery loaded with computer controls, miles of wiring and sometimes multiple powerplants. As you might imagine, not everything always goes smoothly when engineers are perfecting these various systems before they reach production.

A shining example can be seen in the video after the break. There you'll see Infiniti, which was the official sponsor of the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2012, show off some of its latest concept and production vehicles. One of the highlights of the event this year was a run up the hill by a working prototype of the Emerg-E Concept. Sadly, not everything went according to plan.

In the official video released by Infiniti, you can see both the FX Sebastian Vettel Version and the Emerg-E take off from the starting line. What you won't see, at least not in Infiniti's video, is the Emerg-E break down and require a tow before the end of the course. Of course, in this day and age of HD-capable smartphones in the pockets of almost everyone, that doesn't mean there's no video at all...

Scroll down below to see how it all went down. In any case, it's important to remember this is only a prototype and not a final production machine.

"The Evora S has 400 Nm of torque which in such a lightweight car is already a healthy figure. But the Evora 414E has two and a half times that amount! The acceleration sensation is almost indescribable, the surge of torque is like an ocean wave!"

So says Simon Corbett, Principal Vehicle Dynamics Test and Development Engineer at Lotus Engineering. Indescribable as it may be, here are some specs: 738 pound-feet of torque (1,000 newton meters), 0-60 in four seconds and a target of 55 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

Making all that possible are two electric motors (one for each rear wheel), a 17 kilowatt-hour lithium polymer battery pack and an alcohol-fueled three-cylinder engine that kicks in when called upon (for instance, after 30 miles of electric-only driving) to recharge the onboard battery. Total range with a topped-up fuel tank and battery is estimated at 300 miles.

We first saw the Lotus Evora 414E at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, and Lotus has brought its electrified concept back out to play at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Read more about it in the official press release below.