Gas Still Rules Green Auto Show

Green was the color of opening day yesterday at the International Auto Salon in Geneva, another show full of hybrids and other low-emission vehicles, with green lighting and nature-friendly slogans to prove car companies care, Der Spiegel reports. Still, cautions General Motors' CEO to those set to pronounce the gasoline era dead, "We're just at the beginning of this changeover."

Hybrids, ethanol, and hydrogen fuel cells all have their partisans among executives jostling over future energy sources; others say it's too soon to dismiss gasoline. A BMW exec points out that a diesel Mini produces no more carbon dioxide than a hybrid Toyota Prius. "Petroleum will continue to be the most important form of mobile energy for decades," he says. (More International Auto Salon stories.)