Honda makes being green look easy. That's why they are holding on to the "Greenest Automaker" title from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), making this their fifth year running.
Honda squeaked ahead of Toyota and Hyundai (both tied for second), beating the two by just one point. "It was a photo finish, but Honda is still the champ," said Jim Kliesch, a senior engineer in UCS's Clean Vehicles Program and the author of the rankings report. "Toyota was poised to take the lead, but stalled in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Meanwhile, Hyundai's fleet saw dramatic efficiency improvements, pushing the company into a title contender spot."
The UCS's "Automaker Rankings" analyzes the real-world environmental performance and ranks them on average per-mile smog pollution and global warming emissions of the entire fleet of vehicles sold. They score the top eight automakers against the "industry average" of all eight combined. By weighing smog and global warming scores equally, the scientists are able to determine each automaker's overall score. The industry average is assigned a score of 100, and each automakers' scores reflect how far above or below average an automaker pollutes. The lower the score, the greener the automaker is.
Honda came in first with a score of 86, while Toyota and Hyundai each finished with 87. Volkswagen came in fourth place (90), followed by Nissan (93), Ford (10
, General Motors (109) and Chrysler (113). Rounding out the bottom was Chrysler, who was deemed the dirtiest automaker (they have finished last in four of the five UCS rankings conducted over the past ten years).
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Honda Retains 'Greenest Automaker' Title from Union of Concerned Scientists on AutoGuide.com
Honda Retains 'Greenest Automaker' Title from Union of Concerned Scientists
