Look out, Toyota, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. Fellow Asian car company Hyundai is shooting for the growing electric vehicle market with an EV of its own.

Welcome the BlueOn, Hyundai’s entrant in the all-electric market. It will have a maximum speed of 80.6 mph, travel 87 miles on a single charge, and fill its battery to 80% capacity in 25 minutes using a 380-volt fast-charge station. There’s a catch: the vehicle will only be sold in South Korea. Shame…

If all goes well, the company will make a mass market push. It hopes to deliver 2,500 BlueOns by 2012.

EBay is perhaps the ultimate online destination for used goods, so it only makes sense that the site is taking its hand-me-down sensibilities a step further with the eBay Box: a shipping container designed to be sent from sellers to buyers and back until the container becomes unusable. The box, which is made out of 100% FSC-certified material, features water-based inks and requires minimal tape to close.

The box idea was the grand prize winner at eBay’s annual Innovation Expo, a celebration of creative ideas from eBay employees. Designed for “simple green shipping,” eBay believes that a single box reused five times could save nearly 4,000 trees, 2.4 million gallons of water, and conserve enough energy to juice up 49 homes for a year.

EBay will send out a pilot run of 100,000 boxes in October to all sellers who request them. Recipients can log onto a special website to report on the status of their boxes (and track them as they move from place to place), and after a few months, eBay will evaluate the program and figure out how to proceed. So let’s see how it goes.

Greenopia released its updated list of the most sustainable U.S. wineries this week with some big changes this year. The wineries, rated on factors including transportation, growing practices, transportation, building logistics, and packaging, performed better than ever, and for the first time, two wineries took the top rating of four leaves.

Benziger and French Rabbit share the top spot, with both wineries scoring four out of four leaves (last year, Benziger scored two leaves and French Rabbit scored three). French Rabbit is, according to Greenopia, “the one vineyard who has put together all the pieces of the green puzzle” thanks to its biodynamic farming techniques, TetraPak packaging and thorough environmental reporting. Benziger also features a selection of biodynamic and organic wines. The winery received kudos for natural cork-bottled wines, green building practices, and stringent environmental reporting.

This company has created an item that will adapt with the changes your child goes through. Introducing the Babyoom.

The babybuggy will work up until the child turns three and it doubles as a car seat.  Once they’re a bit too big for the buggy it transforms into a tricycle, which the child will be able to enjoy for several years.  After they’ve grown tired of that it turns into a shopping cart. Boom Boom!

Here’s a cool green suit that you can use with any Chroma Key video effect to disappear on camera. The idea is that you can use it while standing in front of a green screen to manipulate objects while remaining completely invisible.

The Video Green Full Cover Suit is also available in blue and in two sizes for $225.

TubeTape

GE may be taking time in launching designer electric vehicle charging stations, although Coulomb Technologies is already deploying quite a lot of free charge spots. The startup, which is installing nearly 5,000 public and home charging stations across the U.S. as part of the $37 million ChargePoint America program, unveiled its first New York City station this week. Very chill!

The BP Gulf Oil Disaster is just that. And the only clean up story circulating right now is the contract actor Kevin Costner has struck with BP. So if you are currently on the west coast of Florida and want to spend a sunny day on the beach, Think again! At least if you’re in Destin, FL, where thousands of tar balls washed up on the beach this week (see picture above) – yuck!

Destin Beach isn’t alone–GovMonitor says that 61 miles of Florida beaches are currently oiled. The website reports:

Tar balls, tar patties and mousse continue to be found on Panama City Beach, Destin, Ft Walton, Pensacola Beaches and throughout Northwest Florida, with the heaviest impacts reported between Escambia and Walton Counties.

So New York’s concrete jungle is about to get more green, nice! Thanks to Gotham Greens, which is building a hydroponic rooftop farm in Brooklyn. The eco-efficient farm will take a small bite out of the $2 billion in produce that’s trucked into the city each year. Here’s how it works.

1. Power Feed – The $2 million, 16,000 square foot farm, which opens this spring and is powered by a 60-kilowatt solar-voltaic array.

2. Waterworks – A large cistern collects rainwater, which is used for irrigation.

3. Buzz Off – Beneficial bugs, such as ladybugs and wasps, are used instead of pesticides to protect crops.

4. Green Wheels – Produce is delivered by bicycles or renewable-energy-powered vans, depending on distance and volume.

5. Watery Fields Forever – Everything from bok choy to basil is produced using hydroponics, a soil-free method of farming. “Our plants grow straight from nutrient-filled water,” says CEO Viraj Puri. Hydroponics uses 10 times less water than traditional farming, with higher crop yields.

6. Local Hunger – Of the 40 tons of expected crops, 70% will head to Whole Foods. The rest will be sold to restaurants and at farmers markets.

Chinese automaker BYD plan to build its US headquarters in Los Angeles. This is the latest in a series of moves that are slowly turning California into the new electric vehicle hotspot.

BYD started selling its first plug-in hybrid (the F3DM) in China this week. The company also produces EV batteries and recently established a partnership with Daimler to build a four-door electric sedan. The Los Angeles headquarters may also lead to the creation of up to 2,000 jobs, according to Autobloggreen.

One Thing I have not talked about yet is Ford. I’m a Ford truck man, one hundred percent. So I’ll be talking more about Ford over the next few months. If you have a hybrid or EV, efficiency is easy enough to achieve, but otherwise it’s difficult to gauge (unless you’re a professional driver).

Ford’s MyFord Touch system, set to launch on the 2011 Ford Edge starting this summer and on the upcoming 2012 Ford Focus, offers a simple way to stay efficient: the Eco-Route. MyFord Touch uses historical and real-time traffic data to calculate the fastest, shortest, and most fuel-efficient ways to reach a destination.