Green stuff at SEMA

Volkswagen

The annual SEMA show in Las Vegas is mostly a carnival of excess, with stuff like 40" wheels, HUMMERS with tank treads, and the latest, greatest muscle car concepts displayed all over the place. It's the perfect storm of the cool, sublime, and utterly ridiculous.

Given that a lot of the rides on display have the approximate carbon footprint of Australia, you'd think there's no room for anything with a greenish bent. And you'd be wrong.

This year, for example, Volkswagen has the CC Eco Performance concept (shown above), a turbo 4-cylinder version of the new Passat CC with driver-adjustable power output. All-out, it tops 300 horses, but it can be dialed back to 222 ponies in Eco mode.

Fuel economy? Up to 33 mpg, depending on how much you dial up the juice.

Not green enough for you? How about a 600-horsepower, all-electric Ford F-150 with in-wheel motors? Or how about a diesel dragster?

When all else fails, you can go the traditional SEMA let's-just-overdo-something-that-should-never-be-overdone route, and slap lambo doors, body mods, and really ugly paint on a Prius. Who said green can't be garish?

Alex Nunez is associate editor of Autoblog.com. His blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.