Sports car manufacturer Ferrari intends to cut its vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half and is working on developing hybrid vehicles, the company president said Saturday.”We want to reduce our CO2 emissions by 40 percent between now and 2012,” said Luca Cordero di Montezemolo told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, in an interview to be published Sunday.

But he insisted that any future hybrid Ferrari would still be “fundamentally a Ferrari.”

“We are currently working on the development of a Ferrari that will use alternative energy sources and which will be based on what we are doing at the moment in Formula 1,” he said, referring to Ferrari’s Kinetic Energy Recycling System (KERS), which is designed to draw extra power from the brakes.

Such a vehicle would be ready to go on the market around 2015.

Asked about the likelihood of fans of the powerful red sports cars buying a Ferrari with a hybrid or electric engine, the boss of the famous racing machines answered: “Yes, of course. It’s the best sports car in the world. It’s still fundamentally a Ferrari.”

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Official release of requirements will come toward end of Bush presidency

WASHINGTON - The next generation of new cars and trucks will need to meet a fleet average of 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015, the Bush administration proposed Tuesday, seeking more fuel-efficient vehicles in the face of high gasoline prices and concerns over global warming. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters outlined the plan on Earth Day, setting a schedule that was more aggressive than initially expected by the auto industry. It responds to a new energy law that requires new cars and trucks, taken as a collective average, to meet 35 mpg by 2020. “This proposal is going to help us all breathe a little easier by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes, cutting fuel consumption and making driving a little more affordable,” Peters said.

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