By Gary S. Vasilash
Not surprisingly, opposite to green on the color wheel is red. . . .
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has released its annual GreenerCars assessment for 2024.
This is the study that shows the “greenist” car has a T on its hood, but it is not a Tesla.
Rather—based on factors including emissions from manufacturing and disposal of the vehicle, emissions from the vehicle, and the emissions from the production and distribution of the fuel or electricity—the vehicle in question is the Toyota Prius Prime SE, a plug-in hybrid.
(Amusingly, while Toyota has been chastised by some environmental organizations for being insufficiently aggressive in its efforts to develop and sell electric vehicles, the ACEEE list of “Greenist” vehicles includes 12. The entire list is:
- Toyota Prius Prime SE
- Lexus RZ 300e
- Mini Cooper SE
- Nissan Leaf
- Toyota bZ4X
- Toyota RAV4 Prime
- Hyundai Elantra Blue
- Hyundai Kona Electric
- Toyota Camry LE
- Kia EV6
- Toyota Corolla
- Hyundai Ioniq 5
(The RX 300e and the bZ4X are full battery electric vehicles. Like the Prius Prime, the RAV4 Prime is a plug-in hybrid. The Camry and Corolla are conventional hybrids. So not only do Toyota products take the top two positions, it has 50% of the list.
(Which makes it hard to square how it is allegedly a heel dragger, environmentally speaking.)
What is perhaps more fascinating than the Greenist list is the “Meanest” list. The vehicles that are the worst-performing mass-market vehicles from an environmental point of view.
They are:
- Mercedes AMG G63
- Ram 1500 TRX 4×4
- Ford F-150 Raptor R
- Cadillac Escalade V
- Dodge Durango SRT
- Jeep Wrangler 4 dr 4×4
- Jeep Grand Wagoneer 4×4
- Mercedes G550
- GMC HUMMER EV SUV
- GMC Sierra
- Chevrolet Corvette Z06
- Mercedes Maybach S680
Here we see GM brands taking four out of 12, and Stellantis brand doing the same. Mercedes three and Ford one.
Note that, yes, the HUMMER EV SUV—as in electric vehicle—makes the “Meanest” list.
Evidently something weighing some four tons and seats five isn’t exactly environmentally advantageous.
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