Honda Loses Top Spot on Annual 'Green' Car List
Civic that runs on compressed natural gas drops to second after 8 years at No. 1.
By Douglas Newcomb Wed 4:24 PM
Exhaust Notes
With a significant drop in U.S. sales, a tepid reception for its new 2012 Civic and a one-two punch from dual natural disasters, Honda probably wants to put 2011 behind it. Now comes news that the automaker's compressed-natural-gas Civic has been bumped from its perennial top ranking on a respected "green"-car guide.
The Washington, D.C.-based environmental lobbying group American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has published its annual Greenest Vehicles list at Greenercars.org for the past 14 years -- and the Honda Civic CNG has occupied the top spot for the past eight. This year, the No. 1 ranking was awarded to the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the first electric car to earn top honors in the past 12 years.
The last all-electric car to hit ACEEE’s top spot was GM’s ill-fated EV-1. Shruti Vaidyanathan, head vehicle analyst for ACEEE, said that an electric car topping the list again after so long shows that "electric cars are becoming more prominent," although she acknowledged that huge hurdles for EVs still exist, such as range and refueling infrastructure.
Honda's being pulled down a notch comes on the heels of the Civic CNG garnering Green Car Journal's coveted Green Car of the Year Award at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, where it beat out the Mitsubishi i for the honor. But it follows a lukewarm press reception and lackluster U.S. sales for the all-new 2012 Civic. The stalwart Japanese automaker took the unprecedented move of announcing a rushed refresh for the popular Civic, reworking the model only few months after it went on sale last April.
The ACEEE’s online guide ranks more than 1,000 vehicles and derives their green score based on a wide range of factors, including fuel efficiency, tailpipe emissions, emissions from the vehicle manufacturing processes and the health impact of those emissions. The Mitsubishi i had a green score of 58, while the Civic CNG and the fellow second-pace finisher the Nissan Leaf scored 55 points each.
Overall, Honda sales were down 7.1 percent in 2011 compared with 2010. Some of this is due to the devastating tsunami that hit Japan in March and floods that struck the company’s factories in Thailand in July. But it’s also due to what some see as stagnant design and innovation at Honda, particularly at a time when domestic rivals have roared back and South Korea’s Kia and Hyundai have increasingly won over U.S. buyers.
The Mitsubishi i was launched in the U.S. last month, and the automaker has sold only a handful of the 4-seat subcompact cars, mostly to fleet buyers. The i followed the Nissan Leaf as the second EV to reach U.S. showrooms, and more all-electric cars competitors -- the Toyota RAV4 and Ford Focus EV, for example -- are scheduled to debut later this year.
The Toyota Prius and Honda Insight occupy the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, on ACEEE’s top 12 list; other conventional hybrids take up half of all the spots, and compact gasoline-powered cars account for three of the top 12 slots. No vehicles from domestic brands made ACEEE's list, although American vehicles such as the Chevrolet Sonic and Ford Escape Hybrid topped their respective classes.
Domestics did dominate ACEEE’s "meanest" list, accounting for nine of the dozen most environmentally unfriendly vehicles of this year, which previously featured several prominent European exotics. For 2012, the Bugatti Veyron took a third in the "meanest" ranking. The top spot was shared by GM’s full-size cargo/passenger vans, the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, with Ford's E-350 wagon "winning" third place.
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Toyota is among the top one. I have been hearing that in near future the cities might not going to see cars and SUVs rather they would be based on BRTs and subways which are safer, cleaner and cheaper to travel.
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