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Europeans get into the hybrid act
Lexus, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche all show off hybrid cars at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show.
Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Japanese automakers pioneered hybrid cars, but German companies have been slow to join in. At the Frankfurt auto show, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche showed off their latest efforts, a mix of research and production vehicles. Most of these cars don't stint on the power, merely using hybrid systems to boost efficiency without shooting for stellar fuel economy.
Volkswagen also comes in with a hybrid concept in its quest to build a car that will only burn one liter of fuel over 100 kilometers. And Lexus shows off a luxury compact concept with a full hybrid power train as a way of testing the waters in the European market.