AAA Releases Annual Green Car Guide

Top two vehicles are electric, but half the top ten spots go to diesel vehicles.

June 02, 2014

WASHINGTON – Half of the top 10 highest scoring green cars were clean diesel vehicles, according to AAA’s newly released Green Car Guide. Three electric vehicles and two hybrids were also in the groups’ top 10.

“The field of green cars this year is the most competitive ever, so the fact that clean diesels ran away with five of the top 10 ratings is a great validation that clean diesel cars are really a great choice for consumers looking to make greener transportation choices” said Allen Schaeffer, the executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, in a press release.

Two electric vehicles — the 2013 Tesla S P85 and 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV — topped AAA’s list and were followed by four Audi TDI clean diesels (A6, A7, A8 and Q5) and the Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec clean diesel among the top 10 highest scoring vehicles.

This year’s AAA Green Car Guide reviewed 83 hybrids, electric cars, CNG-powered cars, clean diesels and partial zero emissions vehicles. The annual study was conducted by the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Automotive Research Center (ARC).  The green cars tested by the ARC are evaluated on the basis of 13 categories, including: emissions, fuel economy, acceleration and handling. The scores for the categories were totaled, and the cars were ranked from high to low.

1.      2013 Tesla S P85 (Electric)
2.      2012 Toyota RAV4 EV (Electric)
3.      2014 Audi A7 TDI Quattro (Clean Diesel)
4.      2013 Lexus GS 450h (Hybrid)
5.      2013 Nissan Leaf (Electric)
6.      2014 Honda Accord Hybrid (Hybrid)
7.      2014 Audi Q5 TDI Quattro Tiptronic (Clean Diesel)
8.      2014 Audi A8 L TDI Quattro Tiptronic (Clean Diesel)
9.      2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTEC (Clean Diesel)
10.  2014 Audi A6 TDI Quattro Tiptronic (Clean Diesel)

The AAA Green Car Guide report is available online, here.

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