MINNEAPOLIS -- If you're worried about gas mileage and the environment, your only choice is to buy a hybrid, right?

Right? Well, maybe.

"It's cleaner than a hybrid," Volkswagen representative Jeremy Cripe said of the German automaker's TDI diesel engine at the Twin Cities Auto Show. "There's no smoke whatsoever. It stacks up well against hybrids."

Volkswagen's championing of its clean diesel technology, the company claims the engine can get 44 miles per gallon on the highway and 38 in the city, fits perfectly with the rising demand for more fuel-efficient cars.

Hybrids Abound

Walking around the auto show in Minneapolis, which started March 21 and continues through March 29, you almost couldn't swing open the door of a luxury model or the newest SUV without hitting a hybrid.

Ford, Toyota, Honda, Mercury and even Lexus were showing off new 2010 hybrid models. Chevrolet, while not having a new hybrid to tout at the show, did bring along the 30-miles-per-gallon crossover 2010 Chevy Equinox and the claim that it offers more models that offer such mileage than any other automaker.

The most intense battle for hybrid dollars is being waged between Toyota, the reigning champion with its Prius, and Honda, which is introducing its 2010 Honda Insight hybrid this year.

While the Insight claims mileage of 43 miler per gallon on the highway, the new Prius will get 50 miles to the gallon, Toyota said.

"We just received the first one this week," said Steve Plaunt, who works at a Honda dealer in the Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins, Minn. "The whole intent was to have a hybrid available for under $20,000."

The Insight LX, the most basic model of the hybrid, accomplishes that with a sticker price of $19,800. To get to that price, many options usually found standard are optional add-ons in the Insight, including cruise control at an additional $1,300.

Toyota is so intent on keeping ahead of the competition it announced this week it would keep selling its 2009 model of the Prius alongside the 2010 model in Japan. Whether it will do so in other markets and what the sticker price for the new version will be remain to be seen.

Automaker Explore Options

But with all the attention paid to hybrid and electric cars, including Tesla's recent announcement it would offer an all-electric car for $49,000 in 2011, companies like Volkswagen and Mazda are seeking to cut the pain at the pump and save the environment in other ways.

Cripe said the TDI engine found in the Touareg V6 TDI, Jetta TDI Sedan and Jetta SportWagen are perfect examples of what the company hopes to achieve. The engine uses a "common rail" direct injection system to decrease sooty emissions, making the engine both cleaner and quieter.

Volkswagen sees the struggles of Big Three automakers General Motors, Chrysler and Ford as an opportunity, Cripe said. He said the company could have as many as four more diesels on the U.S. market down the road.

"There is so much to look forward to," he said. "There is so much happening down the road."

Meanwhile, Mazda, which will introduce its 2010 Mazda3 this spring, is vowing to boost fuel efficiency through cheaper methods.

Mazda officials recently dismissed the buzz around hybrid technology as a "mood," saying that six years from now the gasoline engine would still account for nearly all autos around the world with electric vehicles and hybrids making up a tiny niche market.

The Japanese automaker plans to instead focus on improving the fuel-efficiency of gasoline engines, developing lighter car-bodies and reducing fuel consumption during idling to make their models green, officials said.

While it remains to be seen if electric and hybrid vehicles ever become more than a niche market, automakers seem intent making the decision for fuel-conscious car buyers a little harder.