Green Gets Real at Geneva Auto Show

Environmentally friendly cars are no longer just a PR ploy for automakers. But there's still a lot of mileage left in gas-powered vehicles

Credit: GM Corp.

by Jack Ewing

• View Slide Show

A curtain of artificially generated rain was falling gently inside a large tent overlooking Geneva's waterfront. A digital screen flashed slogans such as "Release the power of nature." Two young women stepped on a platform and coquettishly pulled away a silky cloth to reveal Saab's 9-X Bio Hybrid. The low-slung concept car, which burns ethanol and has solar panels on the roof, "will be seen as signaling the resurgence of Saab," Bob Lutz, vice-president of global development for parent company General Motors (GM), told the audience.

Cue the folk singer, an earnest-looking young man who strolled on stage strumming a guitar. "Seems like just yesterday, you stole my breath away," he crooned.

End of Gasoline Age in Sight

It seems a long time ago that auto execs used to boast that they had gasoline in their veins. In 2008, carmakers talk about "biopower" more than horsepower, and green is easily the automakers' favorite color at the International Auto Salon in Geneva, which officially opened Mar. 4. Displays feature green lighting, green flooring, and sometimes actual plant life, such as the vines spilling from the ceiling of the Peugeot (PEUP.PA) stand.

The Saab presentation at a lakeside Geneva hotel on the evening of Mar. 3 was just one example of how, with oil prices at record highs and regulators demanding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the auto industry is at pains to show it's serious about finding alternatives to petroleum.

Certainly there's a heavy dose of PR in the green claims of carmakers. But there also seems to be a consensus that the end of the gasoline age is within view, and that the auto industry needs to respond more quickly. "We're just at the beginning of this changeover," GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told reporters. "I think it's going to be big and it could happen faster than we think." Wagoner even raised the possibility that U.S. consumers will be willing to pay premium prices for feature-packed small cars, as Europeans already do.

Which Alternative Fuel Will Prevail?

Toyota Motor (TM) has already shown that green can boost sales. Its hybrid Prius sedan has sold 1.3 million units since its introduction in 1997. And in Europe, hybrid versions of the Lexus offer a way for Toyota to differentiate its high-end brand in a region dominated by Mercedes, BMW (BMWG.DE), and Audi (VOWG.DE). Lexus has more than doubled European sales, to 54,000 units, in the two years since the company decided to focus on hybrids in order to counter the competitors' superior diesel lineup. "Hybrid has been our breakthrough," says Karl Schlicht, Toyota's vice-president for Lexus in Europe.

There is still no industry consensus, though, on what kind of technology will replace gasoline. GM's Lutz is an advocate of ethanol. "No other technology will reduce CO2 and dependence on imported fuel as much as [ethanol]," he said.

Other automakers are jumping on the hybrid bandwagon. German automaker Daimler (DAI) displayed a prototype Mercedes SUV it calls BlueTEC Hybrid, and also boasted that it has made a technological breakthrough in adapting lithium-ion batteries—commonly used in mobile phones—for automobile use. The technology will appear in the S400 hybrid planned for launch in the coming year, Mercedes said.