The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has posted an annual ranking of eco-friendly vehicles. The first place went to the Toyota Prius Prime, a hybrid. Funnily enough, a “pure” EV was also recognized as one of the dirtiest cars on the road.
The top-5 list of vehicles with the smallest environmental footprint goes as follows: Toyota Prius Prime, Lexus RZ, MINI Cooper SE, Nissan Leaf, and Toyota bZ4X. The remaining five places are shared between battery-electric cars and hybrids.
The Mercedes-AMG G 63 landed at the rock bottom as the single biggest polluter on the market. The second and third line from that one were claimed by the Ram 1500 TRX and the Ford F-150 Raptor R. The ninth worst vehicle in the ranking is the all-electric GMC Hummer EV. Despite producing zero fossil fuel emissions, it nonetheless consumes a great deal of resources to manufacture and to drive, counting tire, electricity and asphalt costs. The truck’s sheer size and weight make it worse for the nature than the gas-powered Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the Mercedes-Maybach S 680, the ACEEE has found.
In its study, the Council collects all kinds of data associated with the actual use of a car, rather than just its immediate fuel/energy consumption. It tries to calculate the environmental impact of all manufacturing processes, including those of third-party parts suppliers and vendors, as well as the emissions produced by the power plants supplying electricity to the charging stations. An overall score is then calculated for comparison purposes. Thus, the Toyota Prius Prime has 71 “eco-friendly” points, while the Mercedes-AMG G 63 only has 20.
The last year’s ranking was headed by five battery-electric cars including MINI Cooper SE, Nissan Leaf, and Mazda MX-30.
