It’s great to have a corner on the market, unless your business is based on saving the planet.

Susan and Don Fahnestock are co-founders of The Green Car Company in Bellevue. They figure there’s only a 10-year window for dealing with climate change right now.

A little competition would be good in that case.

The Green Car Company stands alone among the dozens of auto dealerships in Bellevue by having environmental protection as its core principle.

“It’s never just been about selling cars for us,” Don said. “It’s selling something that becomes part of a lifestyle.”

The Green Car Company started as a Volvo dealership in Kirkland, but now markets all variety of eco-friendly vehicles – from electric bikes to biodiesel wagons.

The company’s specialty is hybrid plug-ins, which differ from traditional hybrids by operating on pure electric until the juice runs out – typically around 40 miles.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” Susan said. “You have three ways of driving your car instead of just one.”

The Green Car Company is focused primarily on conversions – in this case turning regular Prius hybrids into plug-ins for around $11,000. It’s the only dealership that provides this type of service outside of Bellingham.

The business also has 2009 Priuses that come “plugged in” from the factory, as well as fully electric vehicles like the Zap Zebra, which is strictly limited to neighborhood trips because it maxes out at 35 miles per hour.

One of the more interesting items on the showroom floor is the four-wheel-drive Bad Boy Buggy, a sort of golf cart on steroids that offers lots of low-end torque.

The Green Car Company also sells biodiesel vehicles, which can reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent as compared to regular gas guzzlers.

The business also offers consulting on how to make traditional gas-powered autos more fuel-efficient.

“If your car is getting poor fuel economy, we know what to do,” Susan said.

Think of the little things, like changing an air filter, checking tire pressure, and taking it easy on the accelerator in stop-and-go traffic.

The Fahnestocks may have the only game in town when it comes to green cars on the Eastside, but they aren’t likely to keep their business in Bellevue for long.

Their dealership is being eyed for re-development, and city officials haven’t gone out of their way to help the couple settle in with the business.

“Since we’ve been here, not one single person from the city has come over,” Susan said.

Among the cities that are courting The Green Car Company are Issaquah, Kirkland, Seattle, and Tacoma.

“We feel like Bellevue has a focus on development right now,” Susan said. “That’s fine, but there are other cities with less development that are trying to distinguish themselves in other ways – like going green.”