LA most traffic congested city: U.S. cities took five of the Top 10 Most Congested cities for last year. In the INRIX 2017 Traffic Scorecard, Los Angeles topped the list and was joined in the ranking by New York City, 
San Francisco, Atlanta, and Miami. The ranking is based on analysis of the total cost to average drivers in wasted time and fuel cost. Indirect costs are included that affect businesses operating in those cities who pass their increased costs from congestion on to consumers through higher prices. Thailand leads with the highest average hours spent in peak congestion (56 hours), surpassing Indonesia (51 hours), Columbia (49 hours), Venezuela (42), with the U.S. and Russia both at 41 hours. The INRIX study found that traffic congestion costed U.S. drivers nearly $305 billion last year, averaging about $1,445 per driver. While other countries have high-speed rail and other transportation modes (including biking), the U.S. seems to be looking at finding a good balance, long term, between mobility services, autonomous vehicles, and clean vehicles, to deal with the congestion and air pollution problems.
New Sonata Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid: The refreshed 2018 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid are being shown off at the Chicago Auto Show. Changes made to the Sonata lineup include revisions to the front and rear fasicas, hood, front fenders, and alloy wheel designs. New LED headlights utilize the new Dynamic Bending Light, which moves in alignment with the steering wheel. Both variants of the Sonata run off of a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, an electric motor, and a six-speed automatic transmission, which produces a combined 193 horsepower in the Hybrid and 202 hp in the Plug-in Hybrid. The Plug-in Hybrid can go an estimated 26.7 miles on battery power.
Green Auto Market anniversary: Special thanks to all who’ve sent me a LinkedIn happy birthday for 
Green Auto Market’s six year anniversary. The newsletter had started out prior as Green Automotive Digest with its Green Machine Digest blog. It became Green Auto Market in February 2012 with emphasis on the emerging business of clean vehicles, infrastructure, fuels and energy, advanced technologies, and the economic and political context behind all of it. It was monthly at that time, and went to weekly in June 2013 to a much longer list of readers. Special thanks to Editorial Advisory Board members for participating in monthly conference calls in recent years, especially Craig Shields, 2GreenEnergy; Peter Ward, Alternative Fuels Advocates, LLC; Joe Stergios and Greg Tabak, Enterprise Holdings; and Michael Taylor, Propane Education & Research Council.
As for topics of most interest to readers (according to the open rate):
“Tesla 4th quarter results / Trillium CNG building hydrogen station”
“Performance pay for Elon Musk / Be careful with cryptocurrency”
“Robotaxi JV from BMW and Daimler / Global Cleantech 100”
According to Constant Contact, the “most engaged subject line” since Green Auto Market started using its service and sending out to about 9,000 readers:
Aug. 6, 2013: “Monster waves and Mazda’s SkyActiv / Toyota tops sales”
