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LISA NAPOLI: Let’s check in at the world’s first low-carbon car show, which opens today in the southwestern English county of Cornwall. With oil prices rising to a six-month high, our Stephen Beard found the new cars aren’t lacking in looks.

STEPHEN BEARD: All the big manufacturers from General Motors to Volkswagen have scrambled to exhibit their most fuel-efficient cars at this show.

The green bandwagon is picking up speed, and so are the latest low-carbon vehicles.

Some of the models on display are quite racy. There’s a Saab convertible that’ll do 0 to 60 in six seconds. That runs on bio-ethanol. There’s even a racing car that’ll do 200 miles an hour fueled by the seeds of the jatropha tree.

Organizer David Meneer says this is why they’ve called the first low-emission auto exhibition the Sexy Green Car Show.

DAVID MENEER: The cars look terrific. They still go fast if you want them to go fast. They’re just driven by different technology. So you can be green . . . and be sexy.

And, he says, saving the planet won’t cost the earth. The green cars on display cost less than 10 percent more than their carbon-polluting equivalent.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.

NAPOLI: And demand for those cars is driving up demand for alternative fuels. Looks like production of ethanol is boosting corn prices to 10-year highs.