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Toyota's new 2012 Prius C doesn't look like a math problem, but that's what it is.

Hidden behind its attractive hatchback body and Toyota Synergy Drive hybrid powertrain, the Prius C is just a bunch of numbers. Numbers like the car's miles per gallon rating, its MSRP, how many can be produced and how many Toyota hopes to sell. Toyota ran these numbers through its "Do we build it?" formula, which is what caused the Prius C to come into being, but the good news is that this smallest of Prii adds up to more than what was put into it, and even introduces a bit of fun to the appliance-like Prius driving experience. Not much, mind you, but enough that its target audience – young people who want to buy the most efficient gas-powered vehicle on the market today – should take notice.

Here are some of the calculations that Toyota is making for its new Prius family. Instead of selling 136,463 "normal" Prius Liftbacks as it did last year (down from 140,928 in 2010), the Japanese automaker believes that three new models – the bigger V, the smaller C and the Plug-In version – will push cumulative Prius sales up to 220,000 in 2012 and then go up from there.

Last year, Toyota's group vice president for U.S. sales, Bob Carter, said he expects the Prius to be the automaker's number one nameplate by 2020. Sure, the Prius continues to sell well in green car circles and has been the best selling car in Japan for a year and a half, but for Carter's statement to come true, the Prius family would have to outsell the almighty Camry. Think about that. Think about the ambition – and challenge – behind those words. This is the equation that the Prius C needs to solve.

During the unveiling of the Hyundai Elantra GT at the Chicago Auto Show, the message was the following: This car is lighter than its competitors, cars like the Mazda3, Ford Focus and the Volkswagen Golf, and therefore it gets decent fuel economy.

Hyundai CEO John Krafcik pointedly mentioned that a lot of vehicles these days – from Hyundai and other automakers – get 40 miles per gallon, even though the Elantra GT is rated at only 39 mpg on the highway. The big 4-0 remains an important psychological barrier that's often highlighted in advertising, so we asked Krafcik if he and the engineers are happy with 39 mpg. He said, "I'm sure they were hoping for [40], but that 39 is still best in class and that's pretty good." He added:

There's a slew of vehicles that get over 40 miles per gallon. That car (the GT) is a little bit heavier. It's got a bit more stuff on it so we had a sense that it was going to be a challenge to get to 40, but the difference between 39 and 40 is two percent, it's not a whole heck of a lot.

Krafcik's right, of course, that the one mpg difference isn't that big of a deal. Does it matter to you?

Here it is, the Tesla Model X, the CUV prototype version of the Model S.

We'll have more details live from California soon, but here's what we know at the moment. The Model X can hit 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, will cost around the same as the Model S, and it has those cool "falcon" gullwing-like doors.

With the batteries housed in the same low skateboard as the S, the X has a lot of space. Since the CUV doesn't need a combustion engine, there are actually two trunks: one in front and one in the back. This means, Elon Musk said at the unveiling today, that the Model X can fit seven people and their luggage. The X will also feature all-wheel drive and come with a range of battery options, but we knew this already. The X is heavier than the S and will therefore offer around 10 percent less range from the same 40-, 60- and 85-kWh battery packs that the S uses. It's price will begin around $50k after tax credits, but will rise close to $90k with the largest battery pack and all the trimmings ordered. *UPDATE: There is no 40-kWh pack option.

Tesla will start taking reservations at noon PST February 10th (i.e., later today). Oh, and Tesla is going to offer a fourth model, to be revealed in around two years. More to come.

We're just a few hours away from the Tesla Model X reveal, and we've gotten one last teaser image to tide us over. The SUV's "falcon" doors are a bit more noticeable here than last time, and since people tweaked the photo in editing software last time, the company added a secret message to the image that we're added after the jump. We'll bring you photos and details from the reveal in a little bit, but you can also watch it online here starting at 8 p.m. PST (11 Eastern).

The Chevrolet Volt is on display in a big way at the Chicago Auto Show, mostly because GM wants you to try one out. To get you behind the wheel, the promotions team on site in the Windy City is offering three different Volt experiences to anyone who's interested. The three options are "performance," "safety" and "charging" and all that really means is that, when you walk from the show floor to where the cars are parked, you get a spiel targeted to whatever topic you're most interested in. Once you get downstairs, you get to drive – or ride in – a Volt on a short road course. All told, the experience takes 30 minutes.

GM is operating similar Volt public test drives at events around the country, including races and auctions like Barret-Jackson. With the car on sale for over a year and sales numbers still running a little lower than expected, we can understand this continued public outreach. The system is cyclical, too, as GM uses peoples' participation in the short test drives to attract more test drivers. Little lipstick cameras in the test Volts record reactions and the videos will be edited post haste and displayed in the booth later. GM is also showing longer Volt owner testimonials in the booth, including one from Matt Stehouwer, who started VoltFanSite.com.

On February 6, Penn Jillette – also known as "more than 1/2 (by weight) of Penn & Teller," the comedy duo, got himself a Nissan Leaf. He announced to the world, "Here I am with the first Nissan leaf in all of Vegas. It is mine! I'm all hydro electric." Since then, he's been tweeting up a storm about the all-electric car. The main message? He loves it but don't you dare call him a greenie.

For example, the prolific Tweeter, who usually replies to any of his 1.7 million followers who contact him, Tweeted: "Can't answer everyone right now, but I'm liking the Leaf. It's charging in my garage right now. I love being an early adopter. Thanks." He also said, "I'm not fooling myself I'm saving the earth, I'm just an early adopter." This idea gets repeated many times over the course of a few days, and he admits "yeah, we did a Bullsh*t on that, there's no free energy and electric is no better."

Bullsh*t is the name of Penn & Teller's TV show. The duo performs a regular show in Las Vegas, and Jillette said, "I will plug it in at the Rio outside the Penn & Teller Theater and charge it there." So, if you're in Sin City and you see a white Leaf cruising the streets, give Penn a wave. He might just Tweet about it.

During the Detroit Auto Show, Toyota said the new Prius C would start at under $19,000. Today, we learn that this is like a lesson from Obi-Wan: what Toyota told us was true, from a certain point of view.

The base level Prius C One's MSRP is indeed $18,950, but that doesn't include a $760 destination charge, and you can easily spend north of $23,000 for the top-of-the-line Prius C Four. Still, that's a raging deal for a car estimated to get a fuel economy rating of 53/46/50 miles per gallon (city/highway/combined) from the EPA. As Toyota is quick to point out, those numbers make the C the, "highest rated city fuel economy of any vehicle without a plug."

As you might have surmised, there will be four trim levels for the Prius C and, unsurprisingly, some of the best features are only available on the upper ends. The Four, for example, is the only version that has fog lights and that can be optioned with 16-inch, eight-spoke alloy wheels (all others make due with 15-inchers). Also, neither the One, Two or Three can be equipped with an important cold-weather feature: heated front seats. At least things like automatic climate control, Bluetooth phone controls and remote keyless entry all come standard. The Prius C goes on sale in March. Full details in the press release after the break.

When you drive a plug-in vehicle for the first time, it's common to get the "EV grin" that advocates have talked about for a long time. But, once that initial thrill quiets down a bit, something else can happen – you start to think about the bigger picture.

That's the road that Mini E (and now BMW ActiveE) driver Peder Norby is on, and so he did a few calculations to extrapolate his particular set-up – driving electric cars that are powered by the solar panels on his roof – to a lifetime of driving and wanted to share it with AutoblogGreen. We can argue the pros and cons of gasoline cars and the limitations of EV all day long, but Norby's numbers are impressive. His bottom line: just for the fuel, a gasoline-car driver will pay $275,000 over 50 years while a solar-powered EV driver will pay just $12,000.

This can be, of course, highly variable. Norby uses a 20-mile-per-gallon gas car and an average price of $3.50 as his fossil-fueled example. We all know that 20 mpg cars will not be available much longer. Still, the exact numbers don't matter as much as the gist. And Norby could have included other costs in the chart. He writes:

[The chart] does not include external cost such as the protection of oil, propping up oil supplying countries, clean up of oil, environmental or healthcare cost, nor does it include the cost of grid electricity at night when an electric car normally charges. ... Nor does the graph include the price of the cars themselves. A reasonable argument can be made for both the gasoline car and the electric car as to which one will be cheaper to own and maintain for the next 50 years. I'm betting on the electric car :)

We imagine that if our readers apply the math to their own situation, they'll also find it makes sense to put money down on EVs. Does it?

For the first time in ages, the Honda Civic Natural Gas is not the "greenest" car in the U.S. This year, it's the Mitsubishi i. At least, it is according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), which takes it upon itself to rank these sorts of things.

The CNG-powered Civic has made the top of the list for the past eight years (last year, the Nissan Leaf shared the No. 1 spot) but it drops to second place this year. Last year, ACEEE gave the Civic Natural Gas a score of 54, a number that takes into account "unhealthy tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption, and emissions of gases that contribute to climate change." This year, the i managed to rake in 58 points, which ACEEE says is the "highest Green Score awarded since the rankings began in 1998." That deserves a golf clap or two, even if the methodology for calculating the score changed for 2012 (details in the PR after the jump).

The ACEEE also figures out which vehicles are the dirtiest for its "Meanest" list. This year, the Chevrolet G3500 Express/GMC G3500 Savana cargo vans, Ford E-350 Wagon and Bugatti Veyron can claim this dubious honor.

What impact will the "over-compliance" rule – some would say loophole – in the California Air Resources Board's recent changes to the Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate have? The short and obvious answer is that only time will tell, but one can make the case both that it's a good thing and that it's a bad thing. Odd, but true.

Before we get too far into this, a primer on the ZEV Mandate changes and what the over-compliance rule actually is is important. The basic idea is that CARB wants to reduce the amount of CO2 and other pollutants in the air that come from transportation. Zero-emission vehicles – whether they be plug-in or hydrogen powered – will do this, so CARB decided that at least 15.4 percent of all the cars sold by a major automaker in California needs to be either an EV, a plug-in hybrid or a hydrogen fuel cell vehcile by 2025. To go along with this new rule, some automakers asked for – and got – an over-compliance rule that will "allow manufacturers who systematically over comply with the proposed LEV III GHG fleet standard to offset a portion of their ZEV requirement in 2018 through 2021 model years only."

Some argue that the over-compliance rule will lead to a smaller environmental benefit from ZEVs because, quite simply, there will be fewer ZEVs on the roads than there would be without the rule. This is true. It's also true, as others will argue, that what matters most is lowering the amount of nasty pollutants and emissions from the air, so who cares if this happens because there is a true ZEV driving around or a much-improved (read: cleaner) gas-powered car that emits fewer greenhouse gases than today's vehicles?

We didn't want to try and answer that question. But we did think it made sense to try and capture the landscape of the recent battle over the rule, and so we asked some of the involved automakers and other concerned parties for their opinions. We put together a list of responses after the jump.

One of the differences between the Washington Auto Show and car shows in other cities is the almost overwhelming appearance of politicians and government officials. Whether they come to learn or to lecture (or both), these folks create a well-worn trail from the Hill to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center every January.

One such official who spoke at the show last week was David Sandalow, assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the Department Of Energy. His main point? That "this [auto industry] revival wasn't destined to happen," and only happened because of the "difficult" and vital choices that the Obama Administration made to save the auto industry, choices that are now paying off with jobs and an improving economy. From here on out, he said, we have to keep things humming by supporting innovative technology that makes our cars cleaner and better.

Sandalow, who also wrote "Freedom From Oil," said he was amazed at how fast technology has evolved in the last 15 years, the lifetime of his teenage daughter. "It's an incredibly exciting time," he said. "Technological innovation is sweeping the globe."

To that end, the DOE is supporting a lot of different research avenues, including light weighting, fuel cells, plug-in cars and biofuels. "Advanced batteries is a particularly important area that we're investing in," he said, citing the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies Program at Berkeley National Lab as one strong example.

As a plug-in car driver himself, Sandalow said that, "One of the advantages of electric vehicles is that we have a widespread electricity infrastructure." Of course, building out a Level 2 network will require "some investment," he said, adding that the research shows that most people will charge their vehicles where they currently they park their vehicles: at home at night.

On this point, he told a story about a panel discussion on clean car technology that he saw a few years ago. Two auto execs (he declined to name them) were discussing the potential of introducing plug-in vehicles to the U.S. market. One of the execs said that plug-in cars aren't worth it because only half of U.S. drivers park where they can plug in at night. The other one said his company was very excited to introduce plug-ins here because half the people can charge up at night. Apocryphal or not, that right there tells you all you need to know about people who lead and people who follow.

Time for some good news/bad news (maybe) from Fisker Automotive.

First, the good news. The company announced today that it will soon be selling the luxury plug-in hybrid in Canada, starting with retail locations in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Fisker is working with the big Canadian auto dealer the Dilawri Group as well as Fields Automotive Group to sell the PHEV in Canada. More stores should be coming, since Fisker said in a statement that it will "expand its presence in Canada as it ramps up Karma production."

Speaking of that production, here's the possible bad news. In Auto News is reporting (but doesn't actually source) that Fisker is dropping the number of Karmas it expects to sell in 2012 down to 10,000. Way back when, (i.e., November 2011) the company was still confident it would make 15,000 Karmas in 2012. But then sales were delayed – and we know that production is not the same as sales – so there's reason to be skeptical that lofty sales targets for the $100,000+ Karma will be met. We've contacted Fisker for a comment on this possible decrease, but have not yet heard back. If they respond, we'll let you know.

UPDATE: Roger Ormisher, Fisker's senior director of global corporate communications & PR, wrote to AutoblogGreen:

There has been so much confusion over our sales targets in the media (15,000 was the figure for full global production and sales of all 3 Karma derivatives – sedan, Surf Wagon and Sunset convertible) that we have now moved away from quoting projections.

This is a new car from a new brand in a unique market segment. Therefore, we are not making any predictions on sales figures. We are a new car company, learning as we go and opening up new markets consistently – and one thing that we have learned is that making annual sales projections when you bring a car such as the Karma to the market is unhelpful!

This is why some people didn't want to settle with Honda. Heather Peters, who took Honda to small claims court in Torrance, CA recently over claims of the Civic Hybrid's fuel economy, has been awarded $9,867.19 in damages. That's almost the maximum allowed in small claims court ($10,000) and is a decision that might have a big impact on future class-action litigation.

A refresher on the situation: In 2007, John True sued Honda because, he said, the automaker made misleading claims about the fuel economy of the Civic Hybrid. In 2009, after it became a class-action lawsuit, Honda settled with Civic hybrid drivers, giving them either up to $1,000 off the purchase of a new Honda or a $100 check. This didn't sit right with Peters, so she sued.

The court commissioner ruled that Honda "negligently misled" Peters with claims that Civic Hybrid could get 50 miles per gallon, the LA Times writes. In a statement, Peters said:

I am absolutely thrilled at the reports that I won, even though I won't see the actual judgment until it comes in the mail. It's a victory for Civic Hybrid owners everywhere! Sometimes big justice comes in small packages.

Honda says it plans to appeal, and this may all just be the beginning. Peters is encouraging other Civic Hybrid owners who are disappointed in their real-world mileage to file suits against the automaker in small claims courts across the country.

This one has got to hurt. After a record-best 1,529 units sold in December, sales of the Chevrolet Volt dropped to just 603 in January, part of an overall decline in GM model sales compared to the last month of 2011. The good news in this less-than-half drop? If you look at the year-on-year trend, the Volt almost doubled its sales. In January 2011, Chevy sold 321 Volts.

Over on the Nissan Leaf side, the numbers are also down. Nissan sold 676 Leafs in January, which is less than the 954 Leafs sold last month. But, if we do the same comparison that we did with the Volt, things look good. All the way back in January 2011, Nissan sold 87 Leafs. For more on Leaf sales, read this. We'll have our By The Numbers post on overall green car sales up as the information rolls in. Official press releases from both Nissan and Chevy are available after the jump.