Choosing a "Green" Car

A lifecycle expert examines the top 5 options for environmentall preferred vehicles.

By Roel Hammerschlag

1 Plug-in hybrid. Photo: Marc Kohler 2 Electic powertrain and batteries. Photo: www.e-mobile.ch 3 Biosmart at the Tour de Sol 2005. Photo: Marc Kohler 4 Gas-electric hybrid Honda Insight. Photo: Honda 5 High-efficiency VW Passat. Photo: Volkswagen

You're concerned about the environment, but you need to drive. Which car will do the least damage?

There’s no easy answer, and you will have to make some tradeoffs between your budget and your determination to help change the world. You also need to examine your priorities: Is it more important to (a) help reduce future emissions an uncertain amount by investing in advanced technology, or (b) reduce immediate emissions a known amount with existing technology? Is it more important to (a) fight climate change and foreign oil dependence by reducing fossil fuel use, or (b) help clean the air in your region by reducing pollutants from the car tailpipe?

At the Institute of Lifecycle Environmental Assessment (ILEA), we take the big-picture approach: Advancing technology trumps efforts to reduce personal emissions, and reducing greenhouse gases trumps efforts to cut local pollutants. If you answer the questions above differently than we do, keep those differences in mind as you read through our recommendations.

Here we examine the five basic options, beginning with the most conventional and ending with the most adventurous — and most energy-efficient.

Roel Hammerschlag is the executive director of ILEA, the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment. This article originally appeared as an issue of ILEA’s gratis monthly email newsletter, The Leaf. For more information or to subscribe, visit www.ilea.org.