If your car is a hybrid or battery powered and you live in Ontario, next year you can show it off with a new kind of eco-label: a green vanity registration plate. 

As reported by CBC News, electric vehicles with the plates will be able to travel in carpool lanes in Ontario even if there is only one person in the car. Other perks include parking privileges and the use of charging stations at GO transit hubs.

We know its green car because the plate's letters are in green. Seems the idea has generated some mixed reactions - comments to the CBC site suggested that the Ministry of Transit go further and make SUV plates a sooty black, and for those who "drive like jerks" a red plate. 

As my friend Stephan noted, after all, it's all about identity.