By Jim Meachen
MotorwayAmerica Editor

(January 2010) A headline in the current issue of Automobile magazine hit me the wrong way. It caught my eye and got me thinking. The line on the index page proclaimed, "The BMW X6 Goes Green." This, of course, was in reference to the new Active Hybrid X6. The hybrid X6 gets 17 mpg in city driving driving and 19 mpg on the highway, a savings of one mile to the gallon highway and four miles to the gallon in boulevard cruising.

There are many aspects to being "green" in our brave new world of  hybrid, electric, natural gas, E85, diesel, and fuel-cell. And in my way of thinking, gas mileage — the miles derived per one gallon of black gold or the range in miles of one kilowatt of electricity — is one of the most important aspects of "green."

By that definition, how does the gas-gulping X6 — hybrid or non-hybrid — qualify as "green?" We applaud BMW for developing a new hybrid system for the X6 and the 7-Series. But a hybrid, in this case, is a far cry from "green." A standard-issue V-6 Toyota Camry gets considerably better gas mileage than either of those vehicles, but no one considers the Camry or the V-6 edition of the Honda Accord or Chevrolet Malibu as "green."

We first thought about this a few years ago when the Chevrolet Tahoe was endowed with a hybrid of sorts, increasing gas mileage to an anemic 21 city/22 highway. Granted, that was a nice jump from the standard 5.3-liter V-8, which was rated at 14/19 at the time. The Tahoe was even named "Green Car of the Year" at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show.

What is so "green" about 22 miles to the gallon?

From my perspective to be "green" — at least from the standpoint of gas consumption — constitutes a combined EPA average of 30 miles per gallon or its equivalent in electricity or natural gas.

That means that all future electric vehicles will surely pass as "green."

But let's dwell for now on the mileage of standard gasoline and diesel engine vehicles and hybrid variants now in dealer showrooms regardless of size and segment.

By this definition, the world's hybrid leader, Toyota, has six "green" vehicles in its Toyota/Lexus/Scion fleet. Toyota vehicles averaging at least 30 mpg include the Prius, Corolla, Camry Hybrid and Yaris. Two Lexus vehicles quality, the RX450h and the new hybrid HS250h.

The other Japanese brand deemed ultra fuel efficient, Honda, has three. They are the Civic Hybrid, the Fit and the Insight.

Chevrolet brags in its ads about high fuel efficiency. A check of Chevy shows just two models qualify, the Aveo and the Cobolt XFE. The Malibu hybrid falls one mpg short. That doesn't mean Chevy is devoid of high-mileage vehicles, they just don't meet my definition of "green."

Ford has two that meet the criteria including the highly acclaimed Fusion Hybrid. The other is the Escape crossover hybrid. It's too easy to slap the "green" label on everything hybrid.

Green means green. And green IS NOT 19 mpg, especially as manufacturers scramble to get their corporate averages over 30 mpg to meet future EPA standards.