The British International Motor Show opened up in London yesterday, and mean, green and clean were the central themes of the day -- electric vehicles, hybrids, diesels and cars that boost fuel economy and lower emissions stole the show.

One particularly environmentally-friendly announcement came from Ford, which said it would invest USD $1.8 billion or pound;1 billion in greener technology throughout its lineup. Ford's not the only company looking to get a piece of the action, however -- SMART brought its zero-emission EV (electric vehicle), which launches today, and Saab its BioPower Hybrid. Both should fare well on the "greenness gauge," a color-coded system at the show to indicate to consumers the energy efficiency of each particular vehicle. We'll be bringing you as much from the show as we can, although it appears most of the launches were announced by automakers ahead of time and have already been covered.

[Source: Reuters]