Cameron Diaz topless? Or Cameron Diaz in a topless Prius? Both of those headlines would make us happy here at Greenpacks.

Seriously. Cameron Diaz is the new celebrity face for the environment. So, I went looking to see what else the pretty lady has done for our home – planet Earth.

Here’s what I learned -

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The new Honda Insight is already hot in Japan. Orders are more than three times what was expected. “Overwhelming” says a Honda executive.

The car will be on sale in the States from April.

There are three reasons why the Honda Insight will beat out the Toyota Prius in the long run … maybe.

1. Honda Insight has a mass appeal – former mini-car owners, sedan-owners and minivan-owners are checking it out.
2. Honda Insight costs under $20,000, almost 20% less than a Toyota Prius.
3. Honda Insight boasts 61 miles per gallon, 33% BETTER than the Toyota Prius, and 20% BETTER than the new Prius due out this spring.

Economy is bad, gasoline prices unstable and leaning upwards, and the new Insight is not nearly as funky looking as the older one. My bet is this Honda Insight has a pretty good chance of making inroads into the market that the Prius now dominates.

Images via Autoblog

Toyota is coming out with a new Prius, a solar-powered Prius. The car will have solar panels in its roof that will be used to run the car’s air conditioning. And, when does a car need air conditioning? Right! When the sun is out.

The 2010 Prius is expected to get 55+mpg, be plug-in-able, smaller, a wagon, and even Li-ion battery carrying.

How cool is Toyota?

The solar panels will go on the high-end version of the Prius = be expensive.

The solar panels will be made by Kyocera.

Prius had its debut in Japan in 1997. So far it has sold more than 1 million vehicles worldwide. The 2G version came out in 2003. The 3G version is due out this year.

I saw the 100 MPG Toyota Prius – Plug-in Hybrid Conversion in SF. What can I say? It’s a Toyota. It’s a Prius. It’s a hybrid. It goes a long long way on at tank of gas. Our local cheap gas stand is selling at $1.99/gal. One hundred miles for $2.00.

My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle. It got about 20 mpg or so and I paid about 30 cents for a gallon of gas. If my math is right, then my VW Bug in 1972 went about as far on $2 as this Toyota does 36 years later. And we wonder why Toyota is making money hand over fist while GM and Ford and Chrysler have their hands out.

Toyota is doing its part to make a mint, um, decrease the impact that its cars have on the world’s fossil fuel resources. By 2010 the automaker wants 1/10th of its sales to be hybrid vehicles. Toyota had not set a target date to reach one million units until now. Presently, the car maker sells 450,000 hybrids a year and wants to more than double that figure within two years.

A fully redesigned Prius hybrid is expected out next spring as well as a second hybrid vehicle. Toyota not only wants to keep its lead in the hybrid market, but expand it.

Toyota not only wants to win, but win big.

While Toyota works to improve its hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, the company is also working to make the new 2009 Prius, how shall I put this, a whole lot less ugly, sharp and futuristic-looking.

In that, Toyota is making the car of the future, and will make it available in the U.S., Japan, Korea from next April. Even better news – Toyota is planning to make the price more ‘competitive.’ And why would they do that? People will pay out the gazoo for them here in Silicon Valley.

It’s a car that appreciates in value. With gas prices continuing to climb (we pay $4.29 4.53 for the very cheap stuff here in SV) we can expect this car’s value to continue to go up as well. Leave it to Toyota and other Japanese car makers to lead the way in fuel-efficient vehicles.