GENEVA: In a country where many things are small—except the mountains, and the size of the numbered bank accounts—small hybrid cars don't seem so scary. This is why the Geneva and its International Motor Show was a good place for the unveiling of so many alternative-energy cars.

The huge Ford F350 pickup truck isn't a goner. There's always a need for big vehicles to haul big payloads. But for most of us, any car we buy in 2010 will have hybrid-like elements: brake regeneration and start-stop engines. Actually, these technologies work well on big vehicles, too. The UPS delivery truck benefits more from them than a Toyota Corolla zipping down the interstate.

At Geneva, hybrid cars, hybrid concept cars, and energy-saving cars were shown by Acura, BMW (1 Series, 5 Series), Ford (flex-fuel vehicles), General Motors (flex-fuel vehicles and the EV1 electric hybrid), Honda (natural gas), Mercedes-Benz (Bluetec diesel engines), and Toyota (Hybrid X concept car). Some were diesel-powered; in Europe, diesel equates with efficiency, and efficiency equates with less pollution. To Europeans, the most efficient car would be a compact hybrid diesel. European countries want to continue reducing the carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles from the current 163 grams per kilometer traveled to 130 grams/km by 2012. And a 20-percent reduction in consumption, all other things being equal, reduces carbon dioxide by 20 percent.

With regenerative braking, when the car slows or goes downhill, electric motors in the drive wheels or the car's alternator, running in reverse, become generators and refill a storage battery. In simple cases, the battery is a bigger version of the lead-acid battery you have now and costs, say, $200 instead of $75. In a more serious hybrid vehicle, it might be a $2,000-plus nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery good for 10, 15 or more years; essentially the life of the vehicle. At the least, the bigger battery comfortably powers accessories—all of them electric, not belt-drive—through long stoplights.

The start-stop feature automates what the good-driver manuals have long suggested (and few of us do): Turn off the ignition if you're stopped for more than a few seconds. The fuel used to restart the car is less than the fuel expended to keep the engine running for 30 to 90 seconds. Engines are so reliable that you don't have to worry about the engine not restarting or even taking more than a fraction of a second to restart. And with electric-drive instead of engine-powered accessories, you don't lose your heat in winter or air conditioning in summer. If the alternator/generator is big enough, or if you've got electric motors in the front or back wheels, then you've got a hybrid car.

Regenerative braking and engine start-stop could add a couple hundred (less than a thousand) dollars to the price of a new car. While fuel savings may be less than with a mild or full hybrid, the amount you have to earn back is less. The more gasoline costs, the quicker the payback.