On opening day of the 2006 Geneva Auto Show, I happened to see special sections on the auto show in two local newspapers. Each special section had a prominent article about how the auto show was reflecting trends towards environmentally-friendly cars and technologies. Intrigued, I also browsed through two French language auto magazines that were highlighting the auto show, one of which also had a prominent article about how the auto show was reflecting the "greening" of the industry.

But when I paged through the publications, I found that gas-saving models or those using new technologies either didn't get much exposure, or they were relegated to the back pages. The kind of vehicles getting star billing were more likely to be luxury cars, high-performance sports cars and SUVs.

I then looked at the official Geneva Auto Show Web site, reasoning that the best way to try to detect a trend was by looking at the proportion of green cars among the new models being introduced.

In total, there are roughly 160 premieres this year (many of which are only European or Swiss premieres). The "Motor Cars" category (i.e. running on gasoline or diesel) has about 140 entries. This includes some fuel-efficient models, but the majority are either high-performance or luxury models. (How about a nice 6-liter V12 Ferrari 599 GTB? Or perhaps you'd prefer a 6.75-liter V12 Rolls-Royce? Yes, these are extreme examples, but there are plenty of 4- and 5-liter models to choose from.)

In comparison, the "Electric Cars" category has about 20 entries. This category also includes new technologies such as hybrids, and vehicles powered by natural gas or hydrogen. That makes 20 green cars, plus a few fuel-efficient models from the "Motor Cars" category, or about 15% of the total of all models being premiered. Does 15% qualify as an industry trend? I'm not impressed.

To give the auto industry the benefit of the doubt, I also looked at their concept cars. To be fair, cars now in production were in development long before oil reached $70/barrel. Surely the visionary designers of the automobile industry will now be adjusting their designs accordingly?

Then again, maybe not. At the bottom of this page you'll find a selection of concept cars on display in Geneva. Although it isn't possible to measure the environmental friendliness of a car from a designer's sketch, they also appear to be predominantly luxury or high-performance models.

Someone's not telling the whole truth. Most of the auto press -- at least according to my admittedly biased sample of the literature -- touts the greening of the industry, pointing to the Geneva Auto Show as evidence. But the models on display tell a different story. While there is a minority that appears to be looking to the future, for the majority of models one gets the distinct impression that it's "business as usual" in the auto industry: bigger, faster, more luxurious. And in each case, more thirsty for gasoline.

But it is this "business as usual" impression one gets from the concept cars that is the most puzzling. Aren't automobile designers trained to look years ahead and attempt to foresee all factors that might affect the marketability of their designs? Don't they read newspapers? Don't they also have to pay more when they fill their tanks these days? Hasn't it crossed their minds that oil could very possibly cross the $100/barrel threshold before their creations start rolling off production lines?

The Geneva Auto Show offers little proof that the automobile industry is in transition towards a greener future. Instead, the Auto Show offers proof that the majority of the industry is in denial.