The 2013 Tesla S P85 tops the Automobile Association of America’s 2014 Green Guide, followed by the electric 2012 Toyota RAV4 and the clean diesel 2014 Audi A7 TDI Quattro in third place.
In fact half of the top 10 highest scoring green cars are clean diesel vehicles. The annual list included five clean diesels, three electric vehicles and two hybrids.
This year’s AAA Green Car Guide reviewed 83 hybrids, electric cars, CNG-powered cars, clean diesels and partial zero emissions vehicles. The Automobile Club of Southern California’s Automotive Research Center (ARC) conducted the annual study, testing and evaluating green cars on the basis of 13 categories including emissions, fuel economy, acceleration and handling.
In other green car rankings, Hyundai-Kia wins the title of “greenest automaker,” unseating Honda, which came in second, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ (UCS) latest Automaker Rankings report published last week. And according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) annual vehicle environmental ratings, Mercedes-Benz’s Smart ForTwo Electric Drive convertible coupe is the greenest vehicle of 2014 while the Ram 2500 truck is the “meanest,” or least environmentally friendly.