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Toyota Prius V
2012 Volkswagen Passat
Mitsubishi i
Toyota Prius V
Ford Focus Electric
Honda Civic Natural Gas
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5 finalists for 'Green' Car of Year award
By Josh Condon of MSN Autos
Automakers know that when they participate in the Los Angeles Auto Show, they're speaking to one of the most important eco-conscious markets in the world. It's no wonder, then, that Green Car Journal announces its Green Car of the Year award in the City of Angels each car-show season. This year, the finalist vehicles offer a number of different powertrains: hybrids, electric, diesel and compressed natural gas. That's encouraging for eco-conscious drivers, suggesting that not only are manufacturers thinking about their vehicles' carbon footprints, but are actively blazing their own trail on the way to lower emissions. Any way you slice it, this year's green-car award finalists show that there's more than one way to be green.
5 finalists for 'Green' Car of Year award
Volkswagen Passat TDI
Volkswagen is one of the few manufacturers willing to stand behind clean-diesel technology in the U.S., and the green community repays the favor: VW's diesel TDI engines are perennially listed on various green concerns' best-of rosters. VW's Passat, which boasts a 2.5-liter turbo direct-injected I5 engine good for 43 mpg highway, has been in the limelight a lot in L.A. Not only did the family sedan land on the Green Car of the Year finalist sheet, it also took home Motor Trend's 2012 Car of the Year award as well.
Read Blog: 2012 Volkswagen Passat Named Motor Trend Car of the Year
5 finalists for 'Green' Car of Year award
Mitsubishi i
Mitsu's diminutive i EV has been on sale in Japan since 2009, but the i is new to the American market, in slightly longer and wider form. Power for the rear-wheel-drive commuter car comes from a 16-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack and a 66-horsepower alternating-current synchronous electric motor. Range is a mere 62 miles, but you'll use very little energy testing that limit, as the i delivers an impressive 112 mpg equivalent — and at a starting price of $27,900, it's several thousand less than the Nissan LEAF.
5 finalists for 'Green' Car of Year award
Toyota Prius V
There's almost no such thing as a green car list without a Toyota Prius; the model is practically the grandfather of the modern alternative-powertrain vehicle. But rather than letting the Prius go stale, Toyota recently unveiled a family of Prius-branded cars, including the sportier Prius c and a plug-in hybrid model. The Prius that wound up on Green Car Journal's Green Car of the Year list, the Prius v, rivals many crossovers and small SUVs when it comes to cargo room, yet still boasts efficiency ratings of 44 mpg city/40 mpg highway, and 42 mpg combined.
5 finalists for 'Green' Car of Year award
Ford Focus Electric
EV aficionados cheered when Ford unveiled plans for an electric version of its popular Focus small car, and thankfully the car is more than just a "me too" gesture. The vehicle moves the needle forward in a number of areas. Thanks to a faster onboard charger, for example, the Focus Electric pulls about 30 miles of driving range per hour of charging from a 240-volt home charging dock; that's more than twice as fast as the first-generation Nissan LEAF. Ford says its tech-heavy EV will have a range competitive with the LEAF — think about 73 miles per charge — though that figure and exact mpg equivalency numbers have yet to be released.
5 finalists for 'Green' Car of Year award
Winner: Honda Civic Natural Gas
A who's-who of automotive and environmental players — including Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope, Ocean Futures Society President Jean-Michael Cousteau and tuning legend Carroll Shelby — picked the Honda Civic Natural Gas as the green standard for 2011. The reasons are myriad: It has the cleanest-running internal-combustion engine certified by the Environmental Protection Agency; its compressed natural-gas fuel is clean and "almost exclusively domestically sourced"; and it's "designed for efficiency in ways that require no attention on a driver's part." Clean, superefficient and — thanks to a recent commitment by Honda to increase availability — now coming to a dealer near you.
Josh Condon has covered everything from nanotechnology to champagne and caviar for the likes of The New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Cargo and RL Magazine. He's recently relocated from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Los Angeles and is spending way, way more time in his car as a result.
