"Plug-in" hybrid car drivers and their friends assemble in front of the beloved Golden Gate Bridge at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Four of these cars, the world's first prototype "plug-in" hybrids, reaching up to 100 miles per gallon, can be seen in the background. These ultra fuel-efficient cars are an important part of a climate-friendly future.

Great event, part 1 at Presidio near Golden Gate Bridge (good crowd despite heavy rain), then the rain stopped; Part 2 in San Rafael. I couldn't figure out how to upload photos to some Step It Up area at Flickr, and I had 9 images, so I put them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/56727147@N00/459365957/ with tags for Step It Up San Francisco etc.

The protest against an American car company that sells over 20 cars that get 30 mpg or more - sells cars for under $10,000 and trucks for under $17,000 is silly (see mpg ratings of other cars in Hybrid garages: Audi S4, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc).

You put a $100,000 proto-type version of a Japanese premium car in front of a General Motors dealership? Do you not realize Toyota builds bigger gas-guzzlers than Hummer? Even one of the most popular 2nd SUV's in a hybrid garage - the Toyota Land Cruiser, uses more gas than an H3!

Toyota's hybrid strategy is to increase performance - not mileage! Look at the Lexus hybrid SUVs - they get better performance - not better mileage.

I believe many in the protest mean well, but the real problem is attacking others choices. The Prius driver has the choice to use the carpool lane and burn gas. A suburban in the car pool lane has better mpg per person than a hybrid with a single driver.

What about a protest against the arrogant Prius owners who simply buy it to get in the carpool lane to burn gas?

GM made a mistake by trying to bypass hybrids - they spent billions of dollars on hydrogen fuel cell technology - their buses run in several green cities. Now they are introducing dual mode hybrids. Behind - but they have a better system as it runs in both city and highway speeds.

In addition GM introduced the Chevy Volt. The volt is a plug in Prius for the masses.

The Prius hybrid technology came from a joint venture with GM. GM's strategy was the dual mode system as it could be used on several popular GM platforms (trucks). Toyota wanted the single mode car strategy for their strength (cars).

I would really like to see a protest against BMW, Audi, Lexus, etc. Top selling gas guzzling premium cars are a problem - they out sell Hummer 100 to 1 and burn billions of gallons of gasoline. Why? To hall contractor equipment around? No, simply to get you to the coffee shop or your trip down to Monterey.