consumers in us have pledged to buy gasoline-electric hybrid cars if carmakers manufacture them. The pledge was made in an internet petition as a part of the Natural Resources Defence Council's (nrdc) "earthsmartcars' campaign. "Automakers will not get really serious about building hybrid cars unless they think there is a market for them,' said Jacob Scherr, nrdc senior attorney. "We're going to show them that the demand exists. Both Honda and Toyota are about to sell hybrid cars here and us automakers are fully capable of building such vehicles.'

Hybrid cars can be refuelled at ordinary gas stations and they are less polluting. "Putting this petition online reminds us that Detroit still relies on old-fashioned, inherently dirty and wasteful internal combustion engines,' said Scherr.