If you think the greenest vehicle on the road is a hybrid, think again. In the ACEEE Green Book‘s latest environmental rankings of passenger cars and light trucks, the natural gas 2011 Honda Civic GX was deemed the greenest car, beating out the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and even the popular Toyota Prius.
Now in its 14tth year, the Green Book derived ratings from federal and state emissions and federal fuel efficiency ratings as well as formulas widely used by government and industry to calculate emissions at the factory. The ratings also factor in the environmental impact of disposing of and recycling vehicle components at the end of their useful lives. That’s why the Civic GX, which has tailpipe emissions, still tops EVs and PLEVs like the Leaf and Volt.
Conventional hybrids still performed well, and Annapolis Honda said Honda’s own Civic and Insight hybrids ranked fifth and sixth on the list, respectively. For the first time this year, ACEEE also used vehicle disposal and recycling data developed by Argonne National Laboratory to rank vehicles, which effects the placement of hybrids and vehicles with nickel-metal hydride batteries.
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