Imports Dominate Best and Worst "Greenest" List
The New York Times lists the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's 12 greenest vehicles sold in the U.S. Not surprisingly, it's dominated by foreign brands. In fact, the TTAC Ten Worst nominee Ford Focus is the only American nameplate on the list. The Honda Civic GX, which runs on compressed natural gas, sits in the top of the greenest tree. Only four hybrids sent out an aroma of undefined love: Prius, Civic Hybrid, Altima Hybrid and Camry Hybrid. Rounding out the list: smart fortwo, Yaris, Corolla, MINI Cooper, MINI Cooper Clubman, Civic and Fit. Imports also dominated the six "most environmentally damaging vehicles." Four of these were were oil burners: Touareg V-10 TDI (the worst of the worst), Mercedes GL 320 CDI, Grand Cherokee diesel and Mercedes R320 CDI. The Bugatti Veyron and Lambo Murciélago round out the dirty half-dozen. Neither GM's "Green Car of the Year" (Yukon Hybrid) nor the treehugger's four-wheeled enemy #1 (Hummer H2) showed-up at either extreme.
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Interesting to see that diesels come out so badly. I guess many of those are not equipped with anti-pollutant filters, an increasingly common option in Europe. Now, how come a 3-liter tdi is more pollutant than a 6.7 liter power stroke? Or were light duty trucks excluded from this list?
Well if they're anything like other entities that put out these ratings, their methodology is held behind tight lips and they'll get pissy if questioned on it...
Diesel particulates FTL.
The big problem with these diesels are that they are not CA emissions compliant which means they are allowed to have emissions much higher than a gasoline engine. This is more an emissions control deal than anything. If Gasoline engines didn't have the strict emissions controls on them that they do, you can bet they would be a great deal less green. Let's see the numbers for Honda and VW's new CA compliant diesel, indications are they would be on the green list.