Has anyone noticed that 11 units in the first twelve places are from Japan? USA's manufacturers probably got 11 of the 12 worse places. The learning curve is rather slow?

The ideal local vehicle, to go with the as rich as or richer than the neighbor acquired mentality, used to be a 21 + ft long Cadillac gas guzzler. Then came the 8000+lbs Hummer Super gas guzzlers. Two or three years ago I saw a HUGE 4 x 4 pick-up based on a class VIII International truck. It looked much bigger than the Hummer. Both the Hummer-I and that Huge 4 x 4 seem to have disappeared. What happened?

One must admit that the current local 40+% obese drivers may not feel at ease in mini cars. It is no fun to look bigger that your car. Many people laugh went they see a 300+ lbs driver get out of a mini-car.

The Mitsubishi I-MiEV is really very small (even the US version). (We have a Fiat 500, so we are not anti small car).

I would favour the Leaf or Prius as being more reasonably sized.

Of those two, I would take the Prius as it is almost as economical and has no range problems.

The Mitsubishi I-MiEV is based on the Japanese category of small vehicles called "Kei cars." According to regulations, K-Cars must be less than 3.4 metres long and 1.48 metres wide.

Yes TD that is bad.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-natural-gas-eco-benefits-overstated

Also: "Since 1750, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have increased by more than 150%. The primary sources for the additional methane added to the atmosphere (in order of importance) are rice cultivation, domestic grazing animals, termites, landfills, coal mining, and oil and gas extraction. Anaerobic conditions associated with rice paddy flooding results in the formation of methane gas. However, an accurate estimate of how much methane is being produced from rice paddies has been difficult to obtain. More than 60% of all rice paddies are found in India and China where scientific data concerning emission rates are unavailable. Nevertheless, scientists believe that the contribution of rice paddies is large because this form of crop production has more than doubled since 1950. Grazing animals release methane to the environment as a result of herbaceous digestion. Some researchers believe the addition of methane from this source has more than quadrupled over the last century. Termites also release methane through similar processes. Land-use change in the tropics, due to deforestation, ranching, and farming, may be causing termite numbers to expand. If this assumption is correct, the contribution from these insects may be important. Methane is also released from landfills, coal mines, and gas and oil drilling. Landfills produce methane as organic wastes decompose over time. Coal, oil, and natural gas deposits release methane to the atmosphere when these deposits are excavated or drilled."

About the only bright side to methane is that its enhanced greenhouse effect is temporary - methane isn't taken out of the atmosphere by plants like CO2 is but it does get oxidized during high energy events like thunderstorms and forest fires.

Yeah but when methane gets oxidized it produces CO2 molecules, so each CH4 molecule has 25X CO2e for 8 years followed by 1 CO2e for the next 100. All together that's 310 years of greenhouse packed into 108.4.