Marketing company JWT recently proclaimed that blue would be taking over from green as the new color for the environmental crowd to get behind. Naming trends seem to support this theory, with BlueTec and BlueMotion both highlighting clean diesel technology. Now, DuPont is reporting that the color blue is gaining ground on white, which is currently the most popular shade to order a new car in. One reason that the hue is gaining in popularity is that people reportedly equate the tone with the earth. Yeah, the sky and the ocean are blue, but let's not forget the green grass and trees that make up much of the landscape.

In any case, light shades of blue are proving to be popular choices for the clean appearance that the color adds to whatever vehicle it is applied to. According to Nancy Lockhart, DuPont color designer for North America, "Royal blues will give way to lighter, cleaner and more water-like blues." If this keeps up, we may need to change our name from AutoblogGreen to AutoblogBlue. All right, maybe not.

[Source: DuPont]

At the International Vienna Motor Symposium, which starts today, Volkswagen is announcing that its next-generation turbo diesel engine, BlueTDI - developed especially for the North American market - will initially be available in the U.S. version of the Jetta. The Jetta BlueTDI will come to North America sometime in the middle of this year, followed at some point by the Touareg BlueTDI.

BlueTDI is the cleaner version of the already pretty clean TDI engine that VW uses in its European diesels (starting with the Tiguan last year). TDI meets the Euro-5 standard and BlueTDI is ready for the stricter Bin 5, Level 2 standards that are in force in five U.S. states, including California. Not only does the BlueTDI engine have the low emissions, but VW's director of powertrain development, Dr. Ing. Jens Hadler, said in a statement that the Jetta BlueTDI can get up to 60 mpg in highway driving. Perhaps that'll ease the pain of the Golf TDI hybrid's failure to launch. The BlueTDI displaces 2.0 liters and generates 103 kW/140 PS with 320 Nm of torque. More details after the break.

For a long time now green has been the unofficial color of environmentalists. Anything environmentally friendly has been considered green. But that may be about to change. Advertising agency JWT (formerly known as J Walter Thompson) is predicting a shift from green to blue in 2008. If that happens they will be following the likes Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. Those two companies use the BlueTec and BlueMotion branding on their clean diesels and most efficient models, respectively. As VW spokesman Keith Price explained at the launch of the Dieselution tour earlier this year the Blue refers the earth and sky that make up this pale blue dot when seen from space. The big question will we have to rename this site AutoblogBlue?

[Source: GreenDaily]