The Chevrolet Volt: Not On The Aceee’s Top Ten Greenest Car List

By Author: Marty Vergel Baes
Total Articles: 423
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The Chevrolet Volt which is a hybrid car powered by a gas engine and an electric motor failed to qualify as one of the top ten greenest cars based on the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s assessment. The Volt which is considered as one of the top choices of most car finders who are conducting their own car search by using some of the popular new car finder websites occupied the 12th rank of the list provided by the ACEEE.

This is because the ACEEE has used its own criteria in evaluating each vehicle included on the list. Instead of focusing on the fuel-economy features of each car, the ACEEE used the so called “Green Score” in identifying the car models included on its list. The score was determined by taking each car’s emissions and fuel-economy, the emissions of the power plants in order to provide the needed power in charging all-electric vehicles, and the weight of the car.

The vehicles that were assessed by the council include those that are powered by gasoline ...
... engine, plug-ins, natural-gas powered cars, and hybrids. They also included several diesel-powered vehicles but none of these made it to the top ranks basically due to their higher gas emissions. By the end of the assessment, the Honda Civic GX earned the top spot due to its use of naturally compressed gas. The Nissan Leaf which is one of the Volt’s closest competitors occupies the second spot. The Smart ForTwo occupies the third spot.

What was more surprising is that the Toyota Prius which is powered by pure gasoline ranked fourth. This was probably due to the Prius’ impressive fuel-economy which allows it to emit lower amount of harmful gases and its relatively lighter weight compared to the Chevy Volt. The Volt weighs around 3,800 pounds which eventually dragged its over-all score down.

The results of the assessment conducted by the ACEEE might affect the Volt’s sales. However, Chevrolet might be able to deal with this issue by offering more flexible auto financing deals for this model so as to increase the demand for the Chevy Volt. In addition to this, the Volt’s impressive fuel-economy might still preserve the current demands for this hybrid car model.