The auto show has come and gone, but I haven't been able to find pictures of the cars I liked best, so I'm putting mine up. The overriding theme this year? Hybrid, hybrid, EV, and more hybrid. 

Looks like China is pulling out all the stops in trying to become the world's leading producer of low emission and alternative energy vehicles. Definitely a strategy to be applauded. That's the market of the future, with global warming breaking off Mexico-sized chucks of Antarctic ice off every year, that's simply not up for debate.

This year's auto show will be a memorable one, but not for the reasons the Chinese are hoping. Headlines were grabbed not so much by news of industry sea-change, such as Warren Buffet's play into China's leading electric car manufacturer BYD, but by Geely Auto's rather blatant rip off of the Rolls Royce Phantom design, yet another chapter in a history of Chinese IP theft that has more than a few Western companies fuming.

GM went all out, taking every opportunity to show the crowd that Autobots prefer GM by emblazoning the Transformers 2 logo all over the place and running trailers for the movie (sadly no Megan Fox to be seen) on screens all around their booth. 

For most car shows, the car show girls are one of the main attractions, can't say that to be true here, though you'll see an exception or two to the rule in the slideshow. It was pretty hard to get a good shot of them for you, competition for vantage was merciless, and I had my sweet new camera nearly headbutted out of my hand (no joke) on more than one occasion.  Fortunately, the ol' tap a guy on one shoulder and slip by him around the other trick worked its magic every time. 

All photos by Stephan Larose