When I looked at green cars in 2008, there were fewer choices than today. Executives in Silicon Valley could pre-order a Tesla Roadster, which revived the hopes of electric vehicles after the Detroit automakers tried to kill the first generation of "EV" in the US. Folks in the MidWest could feel good about driving with cars running partially on ethanol made out of corn in Iowa. Like many in the Bay Area I settled with a hybrid, the Toyota Prius that has become one of the most popular vehicles as gas prices soared.
The landscape is different in 2012 with new plug-in models. Earlier this week I talked with Ray Lane, the Executive Chairman of HP and Investment Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has been driving a luxury plug-in (picture right) for 6 months, and I asked him if it was a different driving experience. "It is! I love it... Especially for a luxury vehicle that behaves like a BMW but is an EV."
The Fisker Karma is one of the many new models in production in 2012. The Green Frog reviewed the best green cars of 2012. Here is the top-5 list...
It is easy to get lost as automakers rival in marketing campaigns. A recent survey actually showed that consumers are confused about green vehicles. I reviewed the energy efficiency of cars across the board, and talked to key individuals who have made the switch to greener cars. I did not want to be limited to the marketing spin of the vendors, and I don't think the miles-per-gallon equivalent methodology developed by the EPA tells the full story. I decided to go with the amount of CO2 that each model releases in the atmosphere (CO2 g/km).
To compare the overall environmental impact of vehicles, I also took as a baseline the most common car in the world, the Toyota Corolla with 1,141,709 units sold last year. This model emits 171 g/km of CO2. By looking at the efficiency of each car (CO2 g/km) compared to a Toyota Corolla, and the number of expected sales in 2012, it is fairly easy to derive the overall impact. The computed number used in this study is the tonnage of CO2 saved from being released in the atmosphere during one year.
That is a realistic measure of impact, and it has the advantage to include arguments such as price, design and features that do matter when it comes to purchasing a vehicle. The only downside is that it does not take into account the different vehicle sizes (sub-compact, sedan, SUV, etc.). To be fair, a sports electric vehicle should be compared with a sports gasoline car. However, our focus here is the overall impact on the environment of each model.
The race to replace polluting combustion cars is still open, so I decided to consider 5 separate technology categories: battery electric vehicle (BEV), Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), flex fuel vehicles (FFV), and compressed natural gas (CNG). Driving habits and geographies are quite different across continents, so I focused on North America where the average driving distance each year is 15,000 miles. Now the explanation behind our ranking is done, here are the top green cars in each technology category:
-
Toyota Prius (HEV) - 483,000 tons less of CO2. The Prius (89 CO2 g/km) is still the HEV most sold in the world with more than a million vehicles on the roads in North America. Thanks to its large fan base it is still the top green cars in 2012. It will be interesting to see how it survives next year as Toyota just released the plug-in version of the Prius (47 CO2 g/km). The new model represented 3% of the total Prius family sales in March. Will drivers embrace the new plug-in or stay with the hybrid model?
-
Ford Fusion E85 (FFV) - 242,000 tons less of CO2. The Ford Fusion (132 CO2 g/km) is the most popular vehicle among the 85 models available in 2012 that can run with a mix of ethanol and gasoline. The environmental impact of FFV has been in question though, and the lack of consumer education and E85 pumps limits the actual use of alternative fuel. Many drivers in the US don't even know they have a FFV. Yet, Brazil has been successful in reducing its dependence on foreign oil by 40% thanks to stronger policies and a wide spread of bio fuel pumps.
-
Chevrolet Volt (PHEV) - 45,000 tons less of CO2. The car known on the other side of the Atlantic as the Opel Ampera, has the lowest emission (27 CO2 g/km) among the plug-ins certified by the EPA. Despite a bit disappointing sales in 2011, the Chevy Volt is going strong in 2012 with better than expected sales in March. The Fisker Karma has Hollywood crazy about it with Leo Dicaprio and Justin Bieber driving them, but the company has had issues with the A123 batteries and has only delivered 1,200 vehicles so far.
-
Tesla Model S (BEV) - 29,000 tons less of CO2. The new vehicle released by the Palo Alto company beats the Nissan Leaf by a narrow margin. They both theoretically have zero CO2 emission if powered with clean energy. However, they come at different price points and have different capabilities. The Model S has an impressive 300 mile range while the Nissan Leaf is limited to 100 miles. It epitomizs the battle between incumbent car makers like Nissan/Renault and new entrants like Tesla. By focusing on life-style and investing in the overall customer experience, Tesla yet quasi unknown outside the US could become the "Apple" of electric vehicles.
-
Honda Civic Natural Gas (CNG) - 4,000 tons less of CO2. Honda has been selling it to gas communities and utilities under the "GX" name (67 CO2 g/km) for a number of years but only in 4 States. The decision to expand sales to 37 States is one of the reasons that the new edition renamed Honda Civic Natural Gas won the 2012 green car award at the Los Angeles auto show. It is still the only passenger vehicle in the US running with gas but the increasing role of gas in the US energy sector could tempt other car makers like GM to release CNG model for the mass market.
What comes out of the study is that plug-ins and natural gas vehicles still lag behind flex fuel and hybrid vehicles in terms of overall impact. The recent soar in sales in March for plug-ins is promising. Honda seems to have missed the opportunity to make an impact this year, after hybrids no longer qualify for High Occupancy Vehicle lanes in California, by making the new edition generally available only in the Fall.
What will likely separate the winners and losers overtime is the overall driving experience. Hybrids had timid sales in the late ninities in Japan but later soared. I connected with Tom Saxton, VP of Plug In America, to help me understand why plug-ins have not hit the mass market yet in the US. He sees two major barriers: production ramp-up and consumer education.
"It is so much easier to plug your car than constantly take a detour to a gas station and worry about gas prices", Tom Saxton explains. Driving range is still an issue for many consumers but Tom reckons that "Americans greatly overestimate how much they drive on a daily basis. Also 60% of Americans have a garage and multiple vehicles. They could at least replace one of their cars with a pure electric car, and they will find quickly that it will take care of all their daily driving."
You make sense out of the most complex topics.
http://www.hunskytrucking.com
Posted by: Account Deleted | July 09, 2012 at 08:01 AM