GreenCars.org, in conjunction with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, “an independent, nonprofit research group dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection” released their 14th annual environmental ratings last Thursday. The rankings include plug-ins, gasoline hybrids, diesels, natural gas vehicles, and conventional gasoline vehicles. Despite the hype of the all-electric Nissan Leaf (review here), and the 2011 Car of the Year, Honda’s natural gas Civic GX won for the 8th consecutive year.
Here are the top rated vehicles:
- Honda Civic GX
- Nissan Leaf
- Smart Fortwo
- Toyota Prius
- Honda Civic Hybrid
- Honda Insight
- Ford Fiesta SFE (Super Fuel Economy)
- Chevrolet Cruze Eco
- Hyundai Elantra
- Mini Cooper
- Toyota Yaris
- Mazda 2
- Chevrolet Volt
The Mazda 2 was omitted on the original ranking, but the updated list includes the vehicle. Oddly enough, the “The Smart Fortwo Electric Drive scores 60 [compared to 54 for the Honda Civic GX], but is not eligible for the Greenest list due to low sales volume. Only 250 units of the 2011 Smart Fortwo EV will be available on a trial basis in the U.S.” Although we tend to present the positive on 2nd Green Revolution, for those who are interested, GreenCars.org also put out a list of the most environmentally unfriendly cars, which is dominated by large trucks and SUVs, but topped by the world’s most expensive production car, the Bugatti Veyron.
According to ACEEE Transportation Director Therese Langer, the all-electric cars do not currently rank as high because of the “upstream” emissions from electricity generation. Due to the fact that American sources of electricity are not the cleanest, the electric cars’ rankings suffer. As noted in the press release, the rankings of these vehicles will improve as the electricity sources in the US become cleaner.
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