Is Green the Auto Industry's New Black?

“A potent, new, 500-hp engine that uses less fuel.” While the newly refurbished Porsche Cayenne Turbo offers well-heeled buyers many delights, you wouldn't think fuel efficiency was the first amongst them. Yet Porsche’s print ads for the off-roader are touting their uber-SUV’s improved frugality, positioning the machine as a fun-to-drive grocery-getter for, gulp, environmentally conscious consumers. If Porsche were alone in this misplaced appeal to green values, it could be dismissed as aberrant lunacy. But they’re not so it can’t.

This month, Honda introduced their new Formula One car. As their F1 entry has no official sponsors, the car’s surface is free from the usual blizzard of sponsors’ decals. So Honda wrapped their hi-tech race car in an image of the Earth made from signatures of people who’ve pledged– via myearthdream.com– to limit their planetary “footprint.”

And so a vehicle that gets four miles to a gallon– for entertainment purposes– has been transformed into a rolling poster for corporate sponsored environmentalism.

“The people who work in F1 and the F1 viewers are probably the most difficult people to turn around into making a difference,” proclaimed Jenson Button to the London Times. ”So this campaign is important.” Honda’s F1 driver was clear about his “other” mission. “The idea is to raise awareness of global issues that we have and hopefully it’s going to make a difference.”

Honda’s left its supporters’ difference-making methodology suitably vague. Of course, turned around F1 fans can choose from Honda’s wide range of high[er] mpg vehicles, buy one its hybrid Accords or wait for models powered by the automaker’s clean diesel technology. It’s what marketing mavens call a “virtuous circle” or “a very clever angle.”

Honda’s inherently ludicrous “Save the Planet” F1 car proves that global warming is the new marketing hot button (so to speak). Of course, Honda’s a bit late to this morality play. Toyota’s Prius hybrid set the pace for automobile manufacturers everywhere, giving the Japanese automaker enough green cred to withstand the heat generated by its efforts to build The Mother of All Full-Size ‘Merican Pickup Trucks.

Although the high-mpg low-carbon Prius has not exactly set the sales charts on fire, the distinctively shaped vehicle success vis-à-vis its standard bodied hybrid competition (e.g. the hybrid Accord) has taught the automotive industry an important lesson: it’s not enough to do good for the planet. You have to be seen to be doing good.

That’s why nearly every major automaker at this year’s 77th International Auto Show paid homage to the environment. Honda, Lexus and Toyota brought hybrid concept cars to the Land of Milk and Chocolate. Mercedes flaunted a new C220 sedan equipped with the latest clean-running BLUETEC diesel. Ze new C will produce nine tons less CO2 over its lifetime – from assembly line to junkyard – than the old version! Even supercar maker Koenigsegg presented an E85 powered version of their bonkers CCXR.

And no wonder. Throughout Europe, global warming has replaced the Soviet Empire as the invisible– though real– enemy. It’s got to the point where the European Union has “asked” Germany to consider putting speed limits on formerly sacrosanct derestricted sections of the autobahn. A Stern magazine survey claims 60 percent of Germans now favor autobahn speed limits to cut emissions, while 38 percent oppose them.

America’s response to global warming lags well behind that of our European allies. While there’s been a lot of talk (and an Oscar-winning movie) about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, policy changes have been illusory. Despite tax credits, hybrid sales are still paltry compared to CO2 belching full-sized pickups.

While environmentalists decry federal “foot dragging,” the free market is not insensitive to the issue. As petrol powered pistonheads have pointed out, even with gas at $3 a gallon, it’s hard to justify the “hybrid premium”: the difference in purchase price between a gas and gas – electric car based on fuel savings.

And yet more and more US car buyers are willing to pay a bit extra for a bit more mileage. Why? Representative Michael Burgess of Texas put it best, when discussing his personal Prius. “It gives me a good deal of moral superiority when I drive.”

This fact has not escaped the fine folks down in marketing and product planning. GM, Ford, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Honda and others are realizing a large proportion of their target market– both princes and paupers– are starting to watch their tailpipes. Low carbon and high mileage cars, trucks and yes, SUV’s are continuing to creep to the top of the average buyer’s wish list.

As the Cayenne Turbo ads prove, this development has created endless opportunities for deceptive and self-righteous hypocrisy. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If green becomes the automotive industry’s new black, the resulting pretense can be seen as a case of no harm, no foul.