Every year, Green Car Journal picks the most environmentally-friendly vehicle from the past year and awards them the title of “Green Car of the Year”. The group considers the car industry as a whole to determine which model should get the lauded title. While Volkswagen’s diesel models have twice won the award in the past, but this year, there are no diesel engines in the running at all.
With news that Volkswagen executives lied about the emissions of their diesel vehicles, the news is not really much of a surprise.
Green Car Journal has even gone so far as to strip past Volkswagen winners of their past title altogether. The 2009 VW Jetta TDI and 2010 Audi A3 TDI, who won in 2008 and 2010, respectively, lost their awards as the news of their fraud spread across the world.
Now, who will win Green Car of the Year in 2016? Luckily, there are plenty of models competing this year. Two electric cars, the Audi A3 e-tron and the Chevy Volt, have both been nominated. The Toyota Prius is also nominated and is the only pure hybrid in the running. The Hyundai Sonata and Honda Civic are also being considered because of their fuel efficiency.
This is the tenth year that Green Car Journal has awarded Green Car of the Year. It is possible, in the future, that diesel engines will re-emerge as a clean technology. As Autoblog’s Sebastian Blanco points out, there were no diesels nominated in 2013, but they were seen again by the next year. Time will tell if efficient diesel technology become relevant once more.
