Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire most famous in the United States for owning the New Jersey Nets, has decided to take on another money-losing venture: hybrid cars. He's dubbed them the ë-mobile, which in Russian sounds like "Fuc-mobile"

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson has only been on his first auto industry job for a few months, but based on a speech in Washington today, he's a quick learner. Fight! Fight! Fight! Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty [Ken Thomas via Twitter]

The first Chevy Volts for paying customers arrived today, but GM held back job one for its museum, and will auction Volt #2 to benefit education in Detroit schools. GM's also hiring 1,000 engineers for EV work. [Freep]

Before Porsche builds a handful of its 918 Spyder plug-in hybrids, it has to finish the production bodywork, which it teased today as part of an expansion of its research labs, which cost the equivalent of 250 Porsche 918 Spyders.

Cher bravely lashes out at the hype surrounding hybrid cars, while saying she'd buy a diesel car if they sold diesel near Malibu (they really don't). Maybe she's bitter because her ex-husband died hugging a tree. [FoxNews, Photo: Getty]

After four years of planning and three years of hype, we've finally driven a production Chevrolet Volt plug-in "hybrid." We expected some character from the most obsessively engineered vehicle in GM's history. We didn't expect so many personalities at once.

One of the draft window stickers released today will give buyers of 2012 models efficiency data for gas and electric vehicles. U.S. regulators want you to decide: How do you like letter grades? UPDATE: Automakers give it a "F."

Alex Severinsky, a Soviet emigrant who began his career developing antitank-warfare instrumentation, patented a system for powering gas-electric hybrids in 1994. Toyota used his system for the Prius without permission or payment. Until this week.

In California, 85,000 owners of the Toyota Prius and two other hybrids were granted special stickers providing access to High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, even with a single occupant in the car. That all ends on January 1st.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, at least half of the ten most efficient cars built since 1984 are small cars built before 2000. Better yet, they had manual transmissions! Progress? Ha! Take that hybrid beige-lovers!

It's rare we endorse anything hybrid related, but this t-shirt highlights mashups we can get behind. The shirt's only available for a couple more hours — so buy it now. (Hat tip to everyone who tipped us!) [TeeFury]

Despite the trompe l'oeil, the 2011 Porsche Cayenne is actually 1.88 inches longer than the outgoing model, but it's also 396lbs lighter. The real controversy, other than it being a Porsche-UV, is the 380HP hybrid — the first since 1899.

Confirming what we've seen in leaked brochure scans, the production Honda CR-Z Hybrid has been outed as the small and sporty Prius alternative with a hybrid-first six-speed manual transmission. The leaking culprit? Honda's premature marketing department and AOL.

Are hybrids really a silent killer? A study put together by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seems to think so. NHTSA's found a higher incidence of pedestrian/bike crashes with hybrid vehicles.

This week's sign of the Carpocalypse? Close-to-the-door hybrid-only parking spaces. Our only question is how much carbon Greenhouse emissions are spewed out the tailpipes of the tow trucks coming to tow away violators? [via fixr]

The EMC Flash (sounds like an 80s hip-hop group) was teased at EMC's Indiana HQ Saturday where production is planned for 2010. The plug-in EREV hybrid pickup based on the Ford F-150 may get 250 MPGe when optioned appropriately. [PickupTrucks.com]

Women we're told are "models" from the Angry Green Girls website took their militant hottie environmental agenda to the streets yesterday, washing only hybrid cars in LA. Hybrid pics you'll actually want to see below the jump.

Sources tell us GM CEO Fritz Henderson will announce today the Chevy Volt extended-range electric vehicle will receive a city fuel economy rating of 230 MPG from the EPA when it hits showroom floors later next year. Holy game-changer, Batman!

The 2010 Toyota Prius is tops in fuel economy. But what if that's not your only motivating factor? Maybe the 2010 Honda Insight or the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid's what you're looking for. But which is better? Let's find out.