Dash of Panache; NEW HYBRIDS GET MORE INSTRUMENTS TO HELP DRIVERS SAVE FUEL.(NEWS)

Byline: GREG MIGLIORE

it's a cold Decem-ber morning in suburban Detroit, the temperature hovering at about 20 degrees. But as we cruise the streets near Ford Motor Co. world headquarters, green leaves sprout and grow lush.

Winter vegetation in the Motor City isn't a side effect of global warming. These leaves are digital displays on an inno-vative instrument cluster debuting on the new Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrid se-dans. Using colors, graphics, numbers and a few other tricks, these dashboards were designed, with input from hypermiling and hybrid-car fans, to give drivers information about how efficiently they're driving.

In the Milan we're driving, the leaves are attacking the LCD screen in the dash with a botanical vengeance to indicate that we're getting better than 36 mpg in city driving.

Ford calls this latest technology SmartGauge with Eco-Guide, and it's easy to get used to, informative and quite a bit of funwithout pushing the boundaries of driver distraction.

At about the same time, Honda is launching its own interactive IP this spring with a system called Ecological Drive Assist, which also employs colors, scoring and, yes, leaves. It was unveiled at the Detroit auto show and will bow in the new Insight hybrid this spring.

Toyota also is upgrading its hybrid instrumentation, but so far, we have had more direct, real-world experience with the Ford and Honda examples.