General Motors' Saturn division plans to drop its Green Line badge, come the 2009 model year. Well, sort of. The Green Line has been Saturn's way of identifying its hybrid-electric vehicles, or HEVs, since it introduced its Vue hybrid crossover, two years ago.

Environmentalists and those looking for fuel efficiency needn't panic, however. The marque's move is meant to simplify badging. It's simply going to offer models like the Vue 2 Mode Hybrid starting next year, rather than the Saturn Vue Green Line 2 Mode Hybrid.

Actually, things may still be confusing for consumers, as Saturn plans to offer an array of different hybrid technologies going forward, sometimes on the very same platform. So by around decade's end, you'll see a Saturn Vue Hybrid using so-called "mild" technology, which keeps costs down, but limits the boost in mileage. There'll also be that full two-mode hybrid version of the Vue. And Saturn plans to offer a plug-in Vue hybrid (a prototype shown above) using next-generation lithium-ion batteries that can be charged from a standard electric socket. That variation should allow owners to handle much of the typical day's commute solely on battery power.

Is it time to buy a hybrid? That’s a question a large portion of American auto buyers seem to be asking these days. And there’s little doubt that for many motorists, the answer is yes.

Toyota, for example, reports that its stock of Prius hybrids has fallen to the lowest level in two years, despite production increases. Ford Motor Co. hopes to double the number of gasoline-electric vehicles it’s selling with the addition of new hybrid versions of the Fusion and Milan sedans. And both General Motors and Chrysler anticipate tapping into a burgeoning market with new offerings, many of them, like the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid and Dodge Aspen Hybrid, aimed at truck buyers facing fuel price sticker shock.

But that brings us back to the original question: is it time to buy one for yourself? The answer is an unequivocal maybe. There are a number of factors to consider:

• Is the right hybrid available for you? Is there an offering in the right segment of the market?
• What are the reasons behind your interest in hybrids? Are you simply looking to save money on fuel? Are you hoping to be a better friend to the Earth?
• Does a hybrid make sense considering the way you drive?
• Then look at the dollars and cents, the premium you’re likely to pay for a hybrid product, versus the savings on fuel.

Let’s deal with these issues in order.

When the first hybrids appeared on the U.S. market, nearly a decade ago, they were limited-function specialty vehicles. Honda’s Insight was a teardrop-shaped two-seater that sacrificed performance, comfort, and flexibility for high mileage. Toyota’s early Prius was roomier but also slow and Spartan.

These days, though, manufacturers are racing to market with an array of hybrid alternatives that increasingly cover the spectrum, from econocars to premium luxury vehicles, never mind crossovers and light trucks. At the low end of the passenger car spectrum, there’s the Honda Civic Hybrid, at the highline extreme, the Lexus LS600h. For those who prefer something more truck-like, Ford was first to market in the compact crossover/SUV segment with its Escape Hybrid. Toyota’s Highlander Hybrid broadened that range, and now, Chrysler and GM are filling in the full-size niche. You’ll see even more offerings, going forward, from virtually every nameplate in the U.S. market.

So if you’ve found something that appeals, ask yourself why you want a hybrid. If you’re a diehard environmentalist, you may simply want to find something, anything, that reduces your dependence on fossil fuel. It’s hard to argue against that emotional stand, but make sure the hybrid you like lives up to your expectations.

Some models, such as the performance-tuned Lexus HEVs, actually deliver relatively little improvement over comparable gasoline engines. And in several mileage “shoot-offs,” diesel-powered alternatives have turned in significantly better fuel economy. The new diesel-powered Mercedes ML crossover, for example, will both outperform the Lexus RX, and drive further per gallon, especially if you’re doing a lot of highway driving. Indeed, if it weren’t for the huge premium you’re currently paying at the pump for diesel, you’d generally be better off considering such an option.

Which leads to the question: what sort of driving do you do? Hybrids save fuel by capturing and reusing energy normally lost during braking and coasting. By definition, that means they do best in stop-and-go urban driving conditions – and why many models, such as the Escape Hybrid, actually have higher EPA city mileage ratings than in the federal highway category. (For the ’09 Escape, that’s 34 mpg compared to 30 mpg, respectively.) If you’re mostly driving on open roads, with little stopping, a hybrid may not be a good choice.

OK, so you’ve found a model you like, one that has a significantly better mileage rating than a comparable gas or diesel vehicle, and you’re going to be stuck in traffic much of the time. Now, let’s do the math.

Let’s go back to the Escape, a “full” hybrid, one that can run on battery power alone, for short distances and at lower speeds. According to Ford officials, a typical motorist, doing 15,000 miles a year, will use 500 gallons of gas annually, in the Hybrid, and 555 gallons in an Escape with an I-4 engine. If gas holds at $4, that would work out to a savings of $220 annually. Keep the crossover for six years and you’ll save $1,320. But the premium for the Escape Hybrid is a whopping $6,000, so it’s not easy to make financial sense out of that equation.

The smaller the price differential, the bigger the improvement in mileage, the better the numbers, obviously. On the street, you’ll likely pay around $1,000 more for a Camry Hybrid compared to the standard four-cylinder version. But the mileage numbers are 34 mpg and 25 mpg, respectively. So, again considering 15,000 miles of yearly driving, and a $4 gallon of gas, you’ll save about 160 gallons, or $640 annually. And in that instance, you’d make up your investment in less than two years.

Be aware that hybrids often deliver far less mileage than the numbers shown on their stickers – though the federal government revised 2008 calculations to try to minimize that gap.

Hybrids aren’t for everyone, but for every increase in fuel prices, they start to make economic – as well as emotional – dollars and sense for more and more American motorists. Just make sure you think through the equation and consider your many alternatives.

Why is it conventional wisdom is so often wrong? The general consensus has long been that there’s no market for battery cars. Just go to the local video store and rent a copy of “Who Killed the Electric Vehicle?” the populist documentary that stirred so many waves last year.

The thing is, the EV isn’t dead - certainly not if Nissan has anything to say about it. In an exclusive interview with the Asian automaker’s global product planning chief, Tom Lane, I have learned that electric propulsion is back, but perhaps the single most significant project on Nissan’s docket.

We got a hint of that a few months back when Carlos Ghosn, joint CEO of Nissan and its French alliance partner Renault, landed in Israel. There, he announced a groundbreaking program in which Nissan will provide an all-new line of EVs, and its public/private partner, the Project for a Better Place, will set up a nationwide network of sales, service, and charging centers.

As with conventional EVs, a motorist will be able to plug into a standard wall socket to recharge, but the Israeli service centers will also be equipped to do a fast swap, replacing discharged batteries with new ones, in a matter of minutes.

The program makes sense in a small country like Israel – and in Denmark, where Nissan has a similar venture underway – but again going back to conventional wisdom, it’s long been argued that EVs won’t work in countries like the U.S., with its vast borders and long distances from city to city.

Indeed, California’s bold – some would say naïve – EV mandate of the early 1990s, failed for several key reasons: the high cost, limited functionality, long charging times and, most importantly, the limited range of the EVs of that day. With first-generation lead-acid batteries, the GM EV1, highlighted in “Who Killed…” barely got 75 miles on a charge.

In the coming weeks, Nissan is expected to announce a battery breakthrough, and from what Lane hinted during our conversation, it’s not unreasonable to expect that, within a few years, the automaker hopes to be getting somewhere closer to 150, even 200 miles on a charge. And the executive told me a quick charge should take as little as 20 minutes.

So Nissan is ready to bring the electric vehicle back to the U.S. market. Lane confirmed that it will introduce an all-new vehicle in 2010, initially for sale to fleet markets. That makes sense, because they’re best equipped to provide the necessary infrastructure. But by 2012, Lane added, Nissan will take its new EV to the retail market.

“We’re taking this thing seriously, not as just a way to sell 200 cars in California. It will be a real business,” he stressed.

Lane was circumspect about some details. He wouldn’t say, for one thing, exactly what type of product Nissan will go with, though sources indicate it will likely be a somewhat conventional sedan or light crossover, rather than the wild and wacky Pivo2 EV the automaker unveiled at last autumn’s Tokyo Motor Show. What the planning chief did reveal is that Nissan believes its EV must be reasonably full function, with a relatively good cargo and people-hauling capacity. And perhaps most significantly, Nissan is aiming for a price tag in the “mainstream,” which would mean something in the mid-$20,000 range.

In Lane’s view, the EV is “the silver bullet,” which explains why its development has quickly become “the number one commitment” at Nissan; not yet in terms of raw capital, “but it’s the thing we’re committed to make happen.”

In the long run, Lane believes that when it comes to “the total cost of ownership, an EV can be cheaper to own” than a gasoline-powered vehicle. Maybe, but to get there could require the creation of a creative business case.

The Israeli venture is one example, but whether it could be copied in the U.S. is highly suspect. For the American market, Nissan thinks there are other ways to promote EV ownership.

For one thing, motorists might be encouraged to switch from gas to electric by utilities who’d prefer not to keep adding capacity to the national grid. By plugging in thousands of parked EVs, a utility could draw on their stored power during peak demand times, during the day, then recharge the vehicles before motorists head home. Used batteries could be resold, and not just for scrap. Those same utilities might add them to their network to further balance load demand, suggests Lane.

“You have to believe in it,” Lane says, though in a wide-ranging conversation, he admits the EV can still be a hard sell. And like any smart business, Nissan is hedging its bets.

The automaker recently introduced its first hybrid-electric vehicle, the Altima Hybrid. That vehicle, offered in only limited volume, makes use of technology licensed from Toyota. But a little more than a year from now, Nissan will introduce its own hybrid system, one which it promises will leapfrog Toyota’s well-publicized technology.

Meanwhile, Nissan is developing its own Plug-In Hybrid, or PHEV, in concept quite similar to the highly publicized Chevrolet Volt. It would feature enough batteries to cover perhaps 35 to 50 miles, and a small gasoline engine that would kick in for longer drives.

The common thread to all this is electric propulsion, and that, clearly, is something Nissan is quite charged up about.

The worsening U.S. economy is forcing General Motors to slash production of its big pickups and SUVs. It will trim operations at four key truck plants, reducing production by a whopping 143,000 vehicles. Even barring further cutbacks – which industry observers fear could follow – those plants will produce 15 percent fewer vehicles this year than in 2007.

Making matters worse, GM is facing a series of labor problems that could cripple other assembly operations – on top of an ongoing labor dispute at a key supplier that has already shuttered 30 GM factories.

The latest production cuts come as little surprise to anyone watching recent sales trends. The worsening U.S. economy is hitting the auto industry especially hard, and overall new vehicle sales seem likely to plunge by perhaps a million units below recent peaks. Complicating matters, with fuel prices setting one record after another, more and more motorists are rethinking what to buy. Many potential buyers are either downsizing their pickup and SUV purchases or staying out of the light truck market entirely.

"With rising fuel prices, a softening economy, and a downward trend on current and future market demand for full-size trucks, a significant adjustment was needed to align our production with market realities," Troy Clarke, president GM North America, said in a prepared statement.

It’s turning into a bad year for GM. Even before the latest move, the automaker had been forced to cut or reduce production at 30 plants, the result of a more than two-month strike at the key supplier American Axle. A spokesperson for the parts manufacturer says that progress has been made in recent days, as the result of talks with the United Auto Workers Union. But there is no indication a settlement is imminent.

Making matters worse, GM is facing the threat of its own labor trouble at plants making its mid-size and crossover vehicles – which are actually gaining ground in the current economic crunch – and some of its own parts. The automaker and the UAW settled on a broad, national contract last year, but several union locals have so far failed to secure agreements covering their own, specific factories. That includes an assembly line in Kansas City producing the popular new Chevrolet Malibu, as well as a line in Michigan making the surprise hit, the Buick Enclave, a crossover/SUV.

So far, union officials have chosen to keep bargaining, but walkouts could come in short order if no settlement is reached, further crippling GM just as it had hoped to regain momentum in the passenger car and crossover segments.

With $4-a-gallon gasoline seemingly just around the corner, sales of high-mileage diesels and hybrid-electric vehicles are expected to triple by the middle of the next decade, according to a new study by J.D. Power & Associates.

Power predicts the two technologies will achieve a combined 17 percent of the U.S. new car and light truck market by 2015, in part driven by the auto industry’s need to meet the recently-enacted 35-mile-per-gallon federal fuel economy mandate.

Diesels and hybrids won’t be the only way to deliver 35 mpg by 2020. The new J.D. Power study foresees a big surge in the use of four-cylinder engines. Manufacturers also are expected to turn to lighter weight materials, since lower mass generally means higher mileage.

Automakers are already seeing a shift in product mix, with a steady increase in the sale of small cars, even as big pickups and SUV lose market share. New technologies, such as Ford’s direct-injection EcoBoost engines. Are designed to permit the use of smaller, more fuel-efficient powertrains with a minimal sacrifice in performance.

Nonetheless, Power researchers caution that the transition will be an expensive proposition, averaging $4,000 to $5,000 per vehicle. Industry-wide, that could total up to as much as $85 million in added costs for the industry.

Hybrid sales are clearly on the rise, in part because of a surge in product offerings. In 2007, a total of 353,000 were sold in the States, with the Toyota Prius topping the charts. That was about 2.2 percent of the total U.S. automotive market, but Power’s studies expects the share to soar to seven percent by 2015.

Diesels, meanwhile, are expected to grow from 3.2 percent to 10 percent of the market during the same period. But some observers question whether Americans will embrace the technology, which older motorists still associate with the noisy, smelly diesels of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Even though new diesels are cleaner, quieter, smoother, and easier to operate, there’s another obstacle in the way of widespread acceptance. Fuel prices have skyrocketed, in recent months, and diesel now runs over $4-a-gallon in much of the country, in some cases nearly a dollar more than regular unleaded gasoline.