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EPA's Most Climate-Friendly Cars: All About Fuel Efficiency

 
5 3,131 views December 22, 2009

2010 Toyota Prius rolls onto the Detroit stage at its global debut in January 2009

2010 Toyota Prius rolls onto the Detroit stage at its global debut in January 2009

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The dirty little secrets of Top 10 lists are in the methodology, as Forbes found out with its weirdly inaccurate "10 Dirtiest Cars" list. (It's the end of the year, so it's time for a lot of Top 10s.)

But we see no such problems in the EPA Green Vehicle Guide, which rates vehicles not only on tailpipe emissions but also their carbon-dioxide emissions.

CO2 ~ fuel usage

Fuel consumption is almost directly proportional to CO2 emissions, so it's not surprising that the best cars for the climate--ranked by their carbon dioxide output--turn out to be the highest-mileage models sold in the U.S.

The EPA ranks cars from 1 to 10 on two scales, one for tailpipe emissions and one for CO2. Ratings vary slightly by state, since California and 12 other states have tighter emissions standards than the rest.

2010 Honda Insight

2010 Honda Insight

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2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

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Angular Rear Exterior View - 2010 Honda Civic Hybrid 4-door Sedan L4 CVT

Angular Rear Exterior View - 2010 Honda Civic Hybrid 4-door Sedan L4 CVT

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SmartWay and Elite

Users can sort results by two levels: SmartWay, which requires at least 6 on each scale and a combined score of 13, or the harder-to-get SmartWay Elite, which requires 9 on each scale.

For the 2010 model year, in Ohio--which doesn't use California's standards--nine different models of five vehicles got both the highest score of 10 for CO2 emissions and the SmartWay Elite rating:

  • Toyota Prius (51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway)
  • Honda Insight (40 / 43) - four models
  • Ford Fusion Hybrid (41/36)
  • Honda Civic Hybrid (40 / 45) - two models
  • Mercury Milan Hybrid  (41/36)

In more stringent California, 12 vehicles achieved the same distinction for 2010. One Civic Hybrid and two of the four Insights fell off the list, but six more vehicles were added:

The different emissions levels can get arcane pretty quickly--do you know the difference between a SULEV and a PZEV?--but the basic rule applies: The higher the gas mileage, the better a new car is for the climate.

[EPA Green Vehicle Guide via USA Today]

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Comments (5)

  1. By tom engineer Posted: 12/28/2009 10:42am PST

    "the basic rule applies: The higher the gas mileage, the better a new car is for the climate."
    NO! the whole point of the TWO-RATING system is that fuel efficiency is half the game, and amount of dirty emissions (that cause smog, acid rain, health problems) is the second. It's possible for a fuel efficient vehicle to emit less CO2 (good) but a lot of other harmful pollutants (bad). That's why diesels aren't really clean, for example.
     
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  2. By skierpage Posted: 12/28/2009 5:25pm PST

    @tom engineer,
    I'm no fan of diesels, but the latest aren't that bad. If you click for details at the EPA site, the VW Golf TDI for California is a LEV-II ULEV vehicle that gets 30/42 (34 combined) MPG while emitting
    NOx 0.07
    CO 2.1
    NMOG 0.055
    PM 0.01
    Smog-forming Pollution: (pounds per year) 4.13
    For comparison, the almighty Prius is a LEV-II SULEV (one extra letter!) vehicle that gets a whopping 51/48 (50 combined) MPG while emitting
    NOx 0.02
    CO 1.0
    NMOG 0.01
    PM 0.01
    Smog-forming Pollution: (pounds per year) 0.99
    Diesel car engine pollution used to be an order of magnitude worse, not any more.
    Tailpipe emissions are still awful for areas with poor area quality, but my understanding is new cars are pretty clean and ships, diesel trucks, older trucks, and 2-stroke engines are worse offenders. Meanwhile even a Prius puts 3 tons of greenhouse gases a year into the atmosphere, a global problem.
     
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  3. By cwerdna Posted: 12/28/2009 11:51pm PST

    @skierpage:
    "Aren't that bad?" To quantify the difference in limits of the two ratings:
    NOx: 3.5x
    CO: 2.1x
    NMOG: 5.5x
    Smog-forming Pollution: 4.17x
    So, the limits that 4 Priuses combined meet are that of a single Golf TDI.
    You conveniently left out the greenhouse gas emissions. 4.96 tons/year for a "semi-automatic" Golf TDI vs. 2.97 tons for the Prius, making the Golf TDI 67% higher.
     
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  4. By ge Posted: 12/30/2009 1:45pm PST

    If you compare a golf tdi to a standard honda civic, they are about equal in pollution. It would be nice to see what the carbon footprint is in the making of both of these cars. Then you could accurately judge which one is better.
     
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  5. john_v avatar John Voelcker Posted: 1/1/2010 2:02pm PST

    Thanks, all, for intelligent comments that add to the discussion.
    @ge: I've heard estimates that manufacturing is only 10 to 12 percent of a vehicle's total lifetime carbon profile, assuming life of 10-plus years and mileage of 100K-plus. Can't point you to any sources at the moment, but the fuel you use to power it makes up the vast majority of its carbon output.
     
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