VEHICLES
Solar-Powered Vehicles • Electric-Powered Vehicles
Reading the tea leaves for the vehicle market is greatly complicated by the current turmoil in the auto industry. New vehicle sales in 2008 barely broke the 13 million mark, the lowest since 1993 and down from over 16 million in 2007. Hardest hit were U.S. manufacturers General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, who have experienced plunging share prices and mass layoffs as they struggle to recover from overall decline.
In the midst of this crisis, however, the industry is clearly giving more priority to fuel economy. Spurred by gas price spikes, looming increases in fuel economy standards, and the need to compete with Japanese and European models, domestic manufacturers are offering an expanding range of greener vehicles. Hybrid vehicles and small, fuel-efficient, conventional gasoline-powered cars continue to multiply, but manufacturers are also building a variety of efficiency technologies into most new vehicles and redesigns.
Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated additions to the vehicle line-up for 2009 were the first “clean diesels” to the market. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen have all released diesel cars, SUVs, and wagons this year that meet Tier 2 bin 5 standards and are available nationwide. Diesels in the United States historically have been certified to the some of the dirtiest emission standards and consequently have performed poorly on our annual rankings, despite their intrinsic efficiency advantage.
Mercedes-Benz has added urea-injection technology to its diesel models to reduce NOx emissions. Injecting urea into the exhaust stream breaks down NOx into nitrogen and water, significantly reducing emissions. Volkswagen’s Jetta direct-injection diesel (TDI) uses a NOx storage catalyst that stores NOx emissions until they can be burned off. This year the Jetta and Jetta Sportwagen TDI score quite well. With a Green Score of 42, the Jetta misses a spot on the "Greenest" list by a slim margin. The gasoline-powered Jetta with the same engine size scores 40. As these greener diesels have appeared, the cohort of heavier, Tier 2 bin 10 diesel vehicles prominent on the "Meanest" list in recent years has disappeared from the U.S. market.
The phase-in of federal Tier 2 tailpipe emissions standards is now complete for all cars and light trucks. As evidenced by the increasing number of vehicles certified at lower (cleaner) Tier 2 bins and cleaner California emission standards, new vehicles today contribute less smog-forming pollutants to the atmosphere in general. Most 2009 vehicle models are certified either at the Tier 2 Bin 5 or LEV II emission standard. Less than one percent of vehicle models falls below bin 5.
Designing Green
Manufacturers have introduced a host of sophisticated tweaks to engines, transmissions, materials, and body design to boost fuel economy in conventional vehicles. For example, the Ford 2.5-liter Duratec 25 engine, which replaces last year’s 2.3-liter engine in the 2009 Escape, features more precise knock control, allowing optimization of compression ratio, and fuel shutoff at high-speed deceleration. Highway fuel economy has risen from 26 to 28 miles per gallon. Even this year’s Porsche 911, with its direct injection gasoline engine, has reduced fuel consumption up to 13 percent, in the double-clutch transmission model. This is a result of weight reduction, cylinder friction reduction, and variable valve lift and timing, along with direct injection.
Yet the quest for ever-higher performance continues, as manufacturers pull their fuel economy punches to devote a piece of the technology gains to power and acceleration. Peak horsepower and torque are close to 10 percent higher in the 2.5L Escape and several percent higher in the Porsche 911 as well.
Indeed the overall environmental dividend of the flowering of new technologies and consumers’ new-found fuel frugality has yet to be determined — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s preliminary estimate of the average fuel economy of vehicles sold in 2008 was a mere two-tenths of a mile-per-gallon above the 2007 average.
Greener Choices for Everyone
When it comes to buying a new vehicle, the most environment-friendly step you can take is simple: first evaluate your needs and your budget, then look for the models with the greenest scores among the cars and trucks that meet your needs and fit your budget. Even though some of our top ratings go to natural gas-powered vehicles or gasoline vehicles sold in limited areas, every class has nationally available gasoline vehicles that score significantly better than average.
Our Greener Choices table highlights some of the top-scoring gasoline vehicles in several segments of the market. The list includes only automatics, although many manual transmission versions have higher fuel economy. The excluded models that score even better might be good choices for some buyers. The point of the Greener Choices table is to show that there are ways to buy a cleaner and more efficient vehicle throughout the market.
The models listed in the Greener Choices table are available in most states. If you live in states that have adopted or are soon to adopt California's emissions requirements, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, or Washington state (or in some instances, neighboring states to these), cleaner versions of the Greener Choices models may be available to you.
It is also useful to look not only at the models in this table, but at competing models as well, since within a given size class, the better vehicles often score similarly. Thus, the Greener Choices table can get you focused on the set of models that will be among the best in their class in terms of environmental friendliness.
Buying green does more than fulfill your own personal commitment to protect the environment. Each greener choice by an individual consumer, of course, reduces pollution directly. But the market is also a give-and-take between consumers and manufacturers. As more and more consumers adopt the notion of buying green, automakers will increasingly look at environmentally friendly design as an opportunity, not just an obligation. Such feedback will motivate car companies to make further investments in improved technology, so that an expanded number of green cars and trucks will be available in the years ahead.
Finally, bear in mind that the average car or light truck is likely to be operational for a dozen or more years. Even if you don't keep your new vehicle for more than a few years, your choice affects the options available for used car buyers. So instead of having yet another gas-guzzler cruising the streets, the greener choice you make today can help cut pollution for years to come.
The Greenest of 2009
The natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX retains the title of the “greenest vehicle” for the sixth year running. Toyota's hybrid-electric Prius, which places second, is the year's top-scoring gasoline vehicle, while Honda's Civic Hybrid ranks a close third. Rounding out the top five are the 2009 Smart Fortwo Convertible and Coupe and Toyota Yaris.
Domestically-produced vehicles are inching their way up, after being shut out entirely as recently as 2007. In 2008, the Ford Focus was the lone American vehicle on the Greenest list, sitting comfortably in the 9th spot. This year, the Focus was pushed from the list by the twins Chevrolet Cobalt/Pontiac G5, certified at PZEV / Tier 2 Bin 5, and the Tier 2 Bin 4 Chevrolet Aveo, among others. Narrowly missing out on a spot on the Greenest list were the Ford Focus, the Hyundai Accent, and the Toyota Corolla, all of which score very well but face stiff competition from vehicles with improved and more efficient engines.
The vast majority of the year's Greenest Vehicles are widely available coast-to-coast. Not too long ago, the list was dominated by vehicles for sale only in California, while today more than 80 percent of the Greenest Vehicles can be purchased in any state.
Fluctuating Market Trends
The price of gasoline plays a significant role in determining vehicle purchase trends. Last year brought some of the highest energy prices in history but also a rapid fall in the per-barrel price of oil towards the end of the year. The average national retail price-per-gallon of gasoline climbed to $4.06 in July from $3.04 in January before eventually plunging to $1.69 in December 2008. Global economic conditions suggest that low gas prices will prevail in the near future. The question that remains now is whether or not consumers will continue to prioritize fuel economy when purchasing new vehicles.
While overall vehicle sales and, consequently, fuel-efficient vehicle sales have taken a significant hit over the past year as a result of the economic downturn, fluctuations in fuel prices have impacted consumer preferences over and above the effects of the current recession. Between August and December 2008, as gasoline prices plummeted, hybrid vehicle sales fell by 32 percent, more than the 28 percent fall in total vehicle sales during the same period. The industry has seen similar trends in national sales of lower-consuming compact vehicles, though perhaps to a lesser extent. Throughout 2008, compact vehicle sales remained strong. Compact vehicles began the year with 15.3 percent of total market share, rose to a healthy 21.3 percent in June when gasoline prices peaked, and subsequently fell to 16 percent by the end of the 4th quarter.
Changing consumer preferences are likely to continue into 2009 with uncertain economic conditions and energy price fluctuations. Nevertheless, market analysts expect the subcompact and compact share of the market to stay strong and the truck market to remain soft. Consumer preferences may continue to shift towards vehicles with smaller, less powerful engines. EPA suggests that 2008 marked the first year that 4-cylinder engines gained market share from 6- and 8-cylinder vehicles.
Bi-Fuel and Flex-Fuel Vehicles
Automakers are not currently offering vehicles with bi-fuel capability, meaning the ability to run on either an alternative fuel or gasoline. However, production of flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs), designed to run on either gasoline or the alcohol-gasoline blend known as E85 (85 percent ethanol, with 15 percent gasoline), is continuing to grow rapidly.
Flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) may be cleaner when running on ethanol — although that is a matter of some dispute — but in practice they rarely do. A number of automakers are aggressively marketing FFVs in national ad campaigns and making them widely available to the general market in a number of models. The renewed interest in ethanol as a tool to reduce U.S. oil dependence has led to a substantial increase in the number of fueling stations offering ethanol and in fuel production. But E85 is still available in less than one percent of filling stations, while automakers are getting higher credits toward their fuel economy requirements with every FFV they sell. Ironically, such sales are causing more pollution overall because of the corresponding decrease in fleetwide fuel economy. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 extends the FFV credit for several years, but phases it out entirely by 2020.