The race for the next big advance in alternative energy is heating up faster than the global climate, and green will mean more than eco-friendly for the automaker who can roll out the cleanest, most fuel- efficient car on the road.
In fact, it could lead to a windfall, and quite possibly another chance at relevance for domestic car makers who have been playing catch-up to Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in the environmental arena for years.
"Being seen as green is the single most important perception a public company can create right now," said Phil Reed, analyst at Edmunds.com. "Everybody wants to achieve that kind of status at the moment. Companies have to focus on this direction to grow their profits."
And from Japan to Detroit, that's exactly what their doing.

Just last month, however, Ford CEO Alan Mulally stepped up and admitted climate change is a reality and the onus falls partly on the carmakers. Hence, Ford (F) created the position of senior vice president of sustainability, environmental and safety engineering.
General Motors (GM) has also worked hard to capture headlines for the company's technological advances and has rolled out several promising concept cars.
Yet many of the industry's green proponents, including Reed, have slammed the domestics for simply not doing enough. GM, the world's biggest carmaker before Toyota claimed the title in first quarter, has typically taken the brunt of the criticism.
"General Motors is trying hard to get out ahead, and in terms of design, they seem to be leading the way," Reed said. "But looking at GM's track record is not encouraging."

"I'm truly excited about what's coming out of Detroit," said Nicholas Eisenberger of New York-based consulting firm GreenOrder. "There's a steady drumbeat of impressive technological advances involving flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles like GM's Volt."
General Motors generated ample buzz at the big Detroit auto show in Detroit, thanks to its electric Chevy Volt -- a concept car capable of logging 40 miles before needing a charge.
Even after the battery runs out, GM claims you could get another 600 miles in city driving thanks to an auxiliary gas engine that would kick in and recharge the battery.
The plug-in technology showcased in the Volt, still far from hitting showrooms, could very well serve as a blueprint for the next mass market eco- success story from the auto sector.
"The future is electrification and the various means to power electric cars, such as hydrogen, gas, diesel and/or ethanol," Eisenberger said, pointing to what's known as plug-in hybrid, or a hybrid with another power source -- such as gasoline, diesel or hydrogen -- as a backup.

Plug-in electric cars are nothing new.
GM, in response to a California mandate for zero emission vehicles, produced more than 1,000 EV1 vehicles in the late 1990s, in what some consider to be the most successful foray into electric cars to date. Toyota and Honda both got in on the act, with similar fates.
Despite rave reviews and waiting lists, GM cancelled the program in 2003, claiming it couldn't sell enough to turn a profit.
GM design guru Bob Lutz has said the same thing about hybrids, but now his company, while still working to advance diesel, ethanol, hydrogen and gasoline technologies, has embraced electrification as one of the game-changing frontiers.

So who's in the green lead?
Even while GM continues to turn heads with its advancements, Toyota ™ , which has carved out big chunks of the U.S. market and pocketed piles of cash at the expense of domestic carmakers, seems to have the early lead.
The rousing success of the Prius has played no small part in building that momentum. Toyota currently owns 72% of the hybrid market in the U.S., according to Edmunds.com, with the Prius accounting for more than half the hybrids on the road.
Overall, interest in hybrids has steadily surged. In April 2006, only 1.5% of the industry totals were hybrids; that number climbed to 2.6% in the first quarter this year.
While not a major profit source for the company, the Prius has put Toyota solidly in the forefront of consumer's mind as the greenest of all carmakers.
And perception is power in the fiercely competitive car industry.
Since 2000, when the first Prius was brought to the U.S., Toyota shares have doubled while GM's stock, despite a solid run in 2006, is still almost half where it stood at the time.
Rival Honda Motor Co. (HMC) isn't far behind, if at all, having launched the first-ever hybrid in the U.S. and garnering plenty of accolades along the way. Honda's Civic hybrid is the second most popular model behind the Prius, making up 17% of the market.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit environmental group based in Massachusetts, named Honda the greenest carmaker in 2007, barely edging out Toyota.
DaimlerChrysler (DCX) , on the other end of the spectrum, earned the label of "Public Polluter No. 1," which kept GM from earning the dubious distinction.
But Chrysler, for its part in the movement, announced plans this week to launch a hybrid version of its Hemi engine next year based on technology developed in partnership with GM.
Ford, the first of the Big Three to bring a hybrid to market with the Escape SUV, is the best of the worst, the study concluded.
Judging purely from the headlines, GM seems to be making the most noise as the industry enters the back stretch, but it's still anyone's guess as to who gets there first.
"I wouldn't be surprised if GM is the first to change the playing field with the next big advancement," Reed said. "But it's never smart to bet against Toyota and Honda."