Modern cars have come a long way from their gas guzzling roots and with our consumer priorities becoming ever greener each year– ratings and rankings are more important to car manufacturers than ever. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released its 18th annual environmental ratings for vehicles on its newly launched website greenercars.org, which provides an online database containing vehicle environmental scores for models from the year 2000 to present.
Ranked number one in the list of top twelve green cars is the third generation of the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive. The only conventional gas fueled car to make the list is the Mitsubishi Mirage (renamed Space Star) landing in tenth place. The rest were either plug-in electric vehicles or hybrids. Aptly named by ACEEE as the Greenest and Meanest lists, here are rankings:
Greenest List:
| 1 | Mercedez-Benz Smart Fortwo Elec. Drive Convertible / Coupe |
| 2 | Chevrolet Spark EV |
| 3 | Fiat 500E |
| 4 | Toyota Prius C |
| 5 | Nissan Leaf |
| 6 | Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid |
| 7 | Lexus CT 200H |
| 8 | Honda Civic Hybrid |
| 9 | Honda Civic Natural Gas |
| 10 | Mitsubishi Mirage (Space Star) |
| 11 | Ford Focus Electric |
| 12 | Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid |
Meanest List:
| 1 | Ram 2500 (CLASS 2B) |
| 2 | Chevrolet G2500 Express / GMC Savana |
| 3 | Bugatti Veyron |
| 4 | Bentley Mulsanne |
| 5 | Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG |
| 6 | Mercedes-Benz G 550 |
| 7 | Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe |
| 8 | Lamborghini Aventador Roadster |
| 9 | Toyota Sequoia FFV |
| 10 | Lexus LX 570 |
| 11 | Ferrari FF |
| 12 | Nissan Armada |
What I find interesting, is that even though a Mercedes car has nabbed the top spot on the Greenest list, two Mercedes models made the Meanest list in slots 5 and 6. Chevrolet, Toyota and Nissan also have models on both lists. It is a good thing that some of the other “mean” cars are not overpopulating our roads due to their exorbitant price tags… I mean – how much impact can a few Lamborghini’s and Ferraris have in comparison to the number of Toyotas out there?
ACEEE is great place to check out the efficiency rating for any car you are considering buying. Even if you are not yet ready to convert over to a plug in or hybrid – their site has a section called “Green Choices” that rank the more widely available gas powered cars as well. If you want to see how a specific class of vehicle ranks (ie: 2-seaters; midsize; compact; small wagons etc.), you can go to the “Best in Class” list.
While I am still holding out hope for a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor (garbage-fueled) DeLorean, I think it’s great to see so many great green choices coming onto the market.
