The Green Car of the Year Award was established in 2006 by the Green Car Journal. Five finalists are selected each year, and one car out of these finalists is the winner. The Green Car of the year for 2013 was the Ford Fusion, and the other finalists included the Ford C-Max, the Dodge Dart Aero, the Toyota Prius c and the Mazda CX-5 SkyACTIV.
Overview:
A green car is friendly to the environment, which generally means it has an efficient engine that produces a low level of emission gases such as carbon dioxide. These characteristics are becoming increasingly more important to new car buyers, as evidenced by the number of cars being marketed as green. A green car may have a variety of designs such as internal combustion, electric or hybrid engines that include both engine types.
Ford Fusion
The 2013 Ford Fusion has a hybrid engine and is the second generation for this model. This generation of the Ford Fusion uses lithium-ion batteries, which replace the nickel-metal hydride batteries used by the first generation. The engine for the 2013 Ford Focus gets 47 miles per gallon in the city and 56 mpg on the highway when running on both gasoline and electricity.
Ford C-MAX
The 2013 Ford C-MAX is also a mainstream choice for a green car. It has options for a hybrid engine and a hybrid plug-in engine. These engines use the same lithium-ion batteries and have the same fuel economy as those in the Ford Fusion.
Dodge Dart Aero
The Dodge Dart is a compact sedan with a gasoline engine. The Aero version has a turbocharged 1.4-liter engine that gets 27 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway. This green car shows that a conventional internal-combustion engine can compete with hybrid engines in terms of fuel efficiency.
Toyota Prius c
The Toyota Prius c is a subcompact hatchback with a hybrid engine. It costs less than the basic Prius and has better fuel economy with 53 mpg in the city and 46 mpg on the highway. The EPA ranked the Prius c as the most fuel-efficient compact car for 2012, excluding cars with plug-in electric engines.
Mazda CX-5 SkyACTIV
The Mazda CX-5 SkyACTIV has an internal-combustion engine that uses gasoline. It achieves a high fuel efficiency by using a range of technologies such a high compression ration, more efficient transmissions and a 2-stage turbocharger.