It's no secret that Toyota has been trouncing sluggish U.S. automakers in sales growth – thanks largely to its forward-thinking approach to fuel-efficiency. But at the recent L.A. Auto Show, the Big Three American car makers appeared to be, at long last, making earnest attempts to get into the green-car race.

Ford and General Motors, for instance, are making a push to promote so-called flexible-fuel vehicles, which can run on plain gasoline, or E85, a combination of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gas. Ethanol is a biofuel can be derived from corn, sugar cane, switch grass and other organic matter.

At the moment, fewer than 1000 gas stations carry E85 nationwide, but they're spreading quickly: Last year alone, the number of stations offering ethanol in the U.S. doubled. Phillip Lampert, executive director of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, expects them to increase by a factor of four in 2006.

Meanwhile, Brazil is way ahead of the game: It’s quickly weaning itself off of gasoline thanks to the country's abundant supply of sugarcane-based ethanol. Nearly every car in the country is a flexible-fuel vehicle. Plus it's cheaper than gas, costing roughly $1 a gallon to produce, versus $1.50 a gallon to derive fuel from petroleum.

Photo credit: Pembina.dyndns.org