Hybrid Honda named Green Car of the Year

Posted: 16 June 2009

The Honda Insight, a new family-sized hybrid that is already providing stiff competition for the ubiquitous Toyota Prius, has been named Green Car of the Year 2009 by the Environmental Transport Association (ETA).

The least green car was found to be the 8-litre Dodge SRT-10 sports car. A year's driving in the Dodge emits the same amount of CO2 as is absorbed by 322 mature trees - the equivalent of an acre of oak forest.

The ETA examined over 1300 models of car currently on sale in Britain and compared their power, emissions, fuel efficiency and even the amount of noise they produce to create a definitive guide to buying the greenest vehicle.

The best large family car (emissions per km) was judged to be the BMW 3 Series 320d (144g/km). The worst was the BMW M3 (309g/km)

The best Supermini: Toyota Yaris 1.4 D-4-D 6-speed (109g/km). The worst: Renault Clio Renault Sport 200 (195g/km)

The best small family car: Honda Insight 1.3 IMA ES (101g/km). The worst::Volkswagen Golf R32 4MOTION (255g/km)

The best city car: Toyota iQ 1.0 VVT-i (99g/km). Worst: Ford Ka, Post 2006 1.6 Duratec Sportka (182g/km)

Positive trend

Andrew Davis, ETA director, said: "The discrepancy between the greenest and the least green cars in Britain today is striking, but the market is changing and a combination of consumer pressure alongside government leadership will result in an increasing choice of environmentally-sound cars."

"The big problem is not the Dodge SRT-10s and Lamborghinis because there are not many of them on the road," he said, "the concern is that people are continuing to buy cars that are much too big for their real needs. "

The popularity of large 4x4s like the Porsche Cayenne, which is many times more damaging to the environment than for example a BMW 320d, winner in the Large Family Car category, is already on the decrease;a new system of emissions-based road tax means owners of gas guzzlers pay over £400 per year.

"With the increasing costs of motoring and the threat to the environment,there has never been a more important time to choose greener cars."

He added that diesel cars, which can induce a 'stress response' after only half an hour of exposure to their emissions in a busy city street, are not better for the planet, even when their CO2 emissions are lower. However, the advent of diesel particulate filters (DPF) such as fitted to some of the category winners heralds a dramatic improvement in the environmental rating of diesels. DPFs remove all trace of soot form the exhaust gases.