At the Los Angeles Auto Show, the 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles [HEV & PHEV] won the 2014 Green Car of the Year Award.
What’s really interesting about the Honda Accord HEV and PHEV is the fact that they are so accessible. Honda Accord is already a household name, and giving it a HEV or PHEV powertrain just makes it that much more efficient. Factor in that thousands of Honda Accord HEVs and PHEVs will, no doubt, be sold over the coming years, and we’re counting thousands of dollars in gasoline that won’t be burned for the life of those vehicles. The Accord HEV is rated at 50mpg, which matches the Toyota Prius, but in a sedan, and the PHEV rates at 115mpge, the highest-rated sedan available.
As much as we talk about Tesla Motors, you might wonder why we’re featuring a hybrid but, not a single electric vehicle was nominated for the award, not even the Tesla Model S. Yes, the Tesla Model S is a green car, but it can’t win an award when the rules are written like so:
Finalists are selected for their achievements in raising the bar in environmental performance. Availability to the mass market is a factor to ensure honored models have the potential to make a real difference in environmental impact, and finalists must be available for sale by January 1st of the award year. – Green Car Journal
In spite of Tesla Motors’ success as a startup electric vehicle manufacturer, there just aren’t that many of the Tesla Model S out there for the public to drive, that is, it isn’t really a mass-production vehicle. Relatively speaking, just a few thousand people, out of hundreds of millions of drivers in the world, can enjoy driving a Tesla Model S, along with the emissions-reduction benefits that it offers.
On the other hand, it’s not like Tesla Model S hasn’t won any awards, such as the 2013 World Green Car award in 2013. It just depends on who writes the rules. Besides, once Tesla Motors gets their mass-market model [Tesla Model E?] off the line, I’m sure it will be back on top of the awards lists.
Image © By stevelyon CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
