ACEEE Announces Greenest Cars Of The Year

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ACEEE Announces Greenest Cars Of The Year

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2012 Toyota Prius C

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The American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has announced its 'Greenest' and 'Meanest' vehicles of the year.

Each year vehicles are given environmental scores based on fuel efficiency and emissions standards, as well as new measurements for estimating the environmental impact beyond use, such as manufacturing and energy production.

Topping 2013's list is the Toyota Prius C, heading a top twelve 'Greenest' cars list that includes only two regular gasoline vehicles, and three plug-in vehicles.

The Prius C edges the Honda Fit EV into second place, followed by the Toyota Prius. This is followed by the plug-in Prius and Civic Hybrid.

Only two regular gasoline cars made the list, the Smart Fortwo, and the Scion iQ. Each gets a 'Green Score' of 53 compared to the Prius C's winning 58, scoring highly for their small size (meaning less materials in their manufacture) and ULEV II emissions ratings.

The only other plug-in vehicle in the top 12, the Ford Focus Electric, gets a green score of 52.

ACEEE also releases a list of 'Greener Choices', regular gasoline vehicles that score well in their respective classes. This year, the Honda Fit, Chevy Spark, Buick Encore and Ford Transit Connect Wagon all scored highly, among others.

Languishing at the bottom of the list--or top of the 'Meanest' cars list--is the Ford F-350. Its monumental weight, 11 mpg city economy and Bin 8 emissions grant it a green score of only 17. Even the 250 mph Bugatti Veyron hypercar ranks higher, with a green score of 19.

A full list of rankings can be found on the ACEEE's Greenercars.org website, as well as further information on the group's methodology for calculating green scores.

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Comments (6)

Robert Blanchard Posted: 1/16/2013 7:12am PST

Yeah I do have an opinion... how about the Leaf and the Tesla Model S... no pollution... green manufacturing (recycled materials and or future easy recyclable materials). Big question is batteries... but we already have answers to that, after 30% or around there depletion, batteries are removed and replaced with new ones giving that car another 10 years in fact this could go on for decades! And what happens to the batteries they get used in other places i.e. the home in which you can get another 20 to 30 years from them... then from there they can be sent to third world to aid in electrical grids and or in 30 years we should have a way to recycle those materials... So for me they should be #1 and #2 and stay there for years to come...

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John Briggs Posted: 1/16/2013 7:15am PST

Interesting that it is a mix of EVs, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and small ICE cars in the top 12.

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Peder Norby Posted: 1/16/2013 8:10am PST

The mileage estimates on the Honda Fit EV are way off. 3.9 city and 3.1 highway would give you an average of 70 miles for a 20kwh pack. The EPA rating for the Fit EV is 82 miles.

As a fit ev driver the average is around 4.7 in the city and 3.9 on the freeway.

...and as a previous poster said, you can power this car by solar and that you cant do in a gasloline hybrid.

They blew it, the Fit EV should be number one followed by the other electric cars.
Cheers
Peder
60,000 sunshine powered miles.

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Xiaolong Li Posted: 1/16/2013 11:32am PST

Two things to point out:

1. http://www.greenercars.org/about.htm The site "accepts" donation which lead me to believe that its study can be "biased".

2. I read the study guideline. For plugins, it uses EIA's 2009 electricity grid study and using average of the US grid where majority of the Plugins are sold in the greener part of the country. Thus that Fit EV got beaten by the Prius C.

3. Strong bias against strong EREV/PHEV b/c this statement in the study: "Another issue to be resolved is that the applicability of the concept of all-electric range, and the associated utility factor, is limited. PHEVs in general will often run in “blended mode”. NOT true for EREV or STRONG PHEV.

4. Bias toward MPG instead of MPGe.

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Brian Henderson Posted: 1/16/2013 12:26pm PST

ACEEE Greenest Cars Scoring system places a high bias towards petro vehicles. According to greenercars.org/greenbook_method.htm they include CO2 & energy for replacement batteries for 120,000 vehicle life, & not just models first year of use.

Bias is more on what is not included! Battery replacement for Hybrid vehicles. Oil filters, recycling used oil, lead cell batteries & other consumables (& parts like brake pads, etc) for 120,000 lifecyle of petro vehicle.

A better Green Scoring system would breakout the first year of ownership & the five years of "all consumables" as separate scores before ranking.

The "green list" is ACEEE's & they can do anything they want; but it's disappointing to NOT see a single ZEV like 118 MPGe Fiat 500e!

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Brian Henderson Posted: 1/16/2013 12:50pm PST

To be clear Fit EV & Focus EV are on the list, but there is no remarks why these vehicles rate a higher score than other ZEVs on the market. Other EVs on market have higher EPAs & make better use of recyclable materials. Lack of score details & use of watts vs. MPGe clouds the listing.

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