Green. Say the word, and the press comes running.

That you can buy a ‘green’ car is nothing new. But, with the possible exception of the battery-powered, plug-in electric Tesla Roadster, your choice is limited to a set of largely-mainstream econoboxes: Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion, Honda Civic, etc.  There are exceptions to be sure, but most of these marques, while well respected, haven’t produced many cars worthy of a poster for a teenager’s bedroom wall or the creation of a special savings account to be emptied during a mid-life crisis.

But what about a green supercar? Manufacturers have been flirting with it behind the scenes for years, but it always seemed like a pipe dream: A car that can do 190 miles-per-hour AND get reasonable gas mileage? Where do I sign? Well, you can’t, because they don’t exist.

Well that all changed this week. How about a hybrid Ferrari? Oh yes. Well, sort of.

The latest trend to grace the world of cars, it seems, is the hybrid supercar. Porsche, Lotus, Ferrari and Audi, to name a few, all debuted new concepts for ‘green’ go-fast machines. None of them are actually commercially available yet, though.

But they sound great, right? Now you can be green and not sacrifice the fun factor. Unfortunately, some of these concepts still seem a bit too much like mere headline-grabbing PR vehicles (pun very-much intended).

I question, for example, the actual greenness of the Ferrari 599 HY-KERS concept. It’s a hybrid, yes. And Ferrari says, according to this NYTimes.com piece “Within three to four years, every Ferrari in our lineup will offer some version of hybrid operation,” which is great.  But the HY-KERS also has a massive 12 cylinder engine in it still. The normal 599, which uses that same big 12 cylinder, gets roughly 9 mpg (gulp), and the HY-KERS says it will increase that number by as much as 50%…to about 14 mpg then. That’s…not very green.

But what can’t be denied is that Ferrari really knew how to make the most of their new concept with the press. Because they attached the hybrid/green moniker to it and splashed it with some green paint, they got a boat-load of coverage for it. It’s a simple, clear example of issues response: knowing what the media wants to hear about, and working your message in to it. Obviously there are some genuine intentions from Ferrari to make the company more green by offering a hybrid version of every model in the future, but they’re a long way from actually doing that.  But what they were able to show this week is that they understand it’s important to be seen as an industry leader who is thinking ahead.