The race to dominate the burgeoning market for environmentally friendly vehicles stepped up a notch this week as Ford, General Motors and Daimler all unveiled new green strategies.

Speaking at the LA Auto Show, Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally announced a major new blueprint for sustainability that will commit the company to rolling out a raft of green technologies "that will provide customers more fuel-efficient vehicles that emit fewer greenhouse gases without compromising their expectations for safety, interior room or performance".

The company said that in the near term it will offer turbo-charged, direct-injection petrol engines in higher volumes across its lighter vehicles, which it claims will improve fuel efficiency by between 10 and 20 per cent.

In the longer term, Ford said it is committed to continuing its "aggressive development" of plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell powerplants, reducing vehicle weight by between 250 and 750 pounds (115kg to 340kg), improving aerodynamics and introducing new fuel-saving transmissions.

"Substantial vehicle weight reductions will enable us to use smaller displacement engines that provide secondary efficiencies, such as lighter chassis and suspension components," Mulally said. "They, in turn, lower vehicle weight even further."

Arch rival GM, meanwhile, used the show to announce that it will position its popular Chevrolet range at the centre of its green efforts as it unveiled its latest hybrid vehicles, including the new 2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid pickup truck and the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid saloon.

The company also announced a deal with Disney which will see ten Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles deployed as shuttles on Disney properties in California.

The announcements come days after German car giant Daimler, best known for its Mercedes-Benz brand, detailed new plans to slash the environmental footprint of its portfolio of commercial vehicles.

Andreas Renschler, Daimler Board of Management member and Head of Daimler Trucks, said that the company's new Shaping Future Transportation initiative would give Daimler's Trucks and Buses division complete access to the company's alternative drive and fuels R&D activities.

Under the new initiative, the company will next year undertake customer tests of Mercedes-Benz Atego BlueTec Hybrid delivery trucks and the Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid buses, as well as fleet tests of its Canter Eco Hybrid vans and a range of trials with biomass fuels.

The company said that it will also add to the 3,000 Daimler commercial vehicles using alternative systems already in circulation, through the production of a further 1,500 Freightliner M2 Hybrid trucks over the next three years.