Lotus Eco Elise first pictures

So the Elise gets dumped in the green-vacuum section on the basis it's made of hemp for the car seats and sisal for carpets which Lotus claims is 'renewable' - clearly CAR have been suckered into the hyperbole and without question put it down as 'green' though we know not what CAR's criteria are! What makes these 2 plants renewable is they can be grown. So what's wrong with including all cars with leather seats then? And Lotus plan to make the epoxy 'recyclable' eventually. Well include every car made on the planet in the green section then as given limitless money EVERYTHING can be recycled. Well Lotus recycling is 'economic' I hear you say. Most recycling is subsidised and NOT ecomomic (ie. does not pay for itself - a minus sum game). Indeed try looking at studies that show not only is recycling a dead loss but if America dumped everything into land-fill sites (made deliberatly and faliscously unpopular by the green agenda to encourage recycling industries) those landfills would take up a Max 1% of Americas land-mass. So despite all the b*ll*cks of waste packaging and the 'throw-away-society' we're making a neglible impact on our enviroment. Finally scale up this Lotus to mass production. If we have to grow our cars what do you think the imapct on agricultural land here and in the Thrid World. Despite America using barely 3% ethanol fuel it's driven up food stuff prices by 20-35% (led to the 'Tortilla Riots' in Mexico as US export grain increased). You think the property market is falling through the floor? Housing maybe but agricultural land has increased 20% in value this year because of food prices increasing. Keep doing the sums of growing car materials, food prices, land prices and you have a bigger scandal for the West and poor in the Third World than the ethanol farce. So c'mon CAR, what's the rules for a green car and its impact on our Earth - have you done the maths and the science?

My conception of an eco-Elise would be a hybrid with a fat electric motor coupled to a little 100hp Wankel. Smooth, fast, quiet, light and efficient, it could be fabulous. Hemp indeed - what's wrong with the seats having an aluminium frame and a cotton cover? Or is plain old cotton not fashionable enough?

The 'little furry mammal' strikes again