The greenest car is keeping the car you have for as long as possible. Then replacing it with a used car. You could even get a bumper sticker that says "Rescue Driver" or "Who saved Who?" with a icon of a car if it would make you feel superior to the rest of the drivers on the road.
The greenest car in America isn't an EV
31–37 of 37 posts
Re: The greenest car in America isn't an EV
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
As the parent says, the goal is to have NET 0 emissions. Certainly some emissions will still occur but they need to be small enough to be offset by CO2 removal. Because it is almost always much easier to prevent emissions rather than remove CO2, preventing 100% emission from cars and their production is likely to be best path to NET 0.
Cutting emissions by 100% and being net zero are two different things. Emitting a bunch of GHG and then buying carbon offsets is radically different from never actually emitting GHG. And the parent never says "net", it says cut emissions 100%. You're reading words that aren't there. If you wanted to cut emissions 100%, you would stop making cars. You would stop making busses. You would stop building roads. You would…
why? if you have power from other than fossil fuels, that power can be used to do anything that you would use fossil fuels for.
Re: The greenest car in America isn't an EV
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cutting emissions by 100% and being net zero are two different things. Emitting a bunch of GHG and then buying carbon offsets is radically different from never actually emitting GHG. And the parent never says "net", it says cut emissions 100%. You're reading words that aren't there. If you wanted to cut emissions 100%, you would stop making cars. You would stop making busses. You would stop building roads. You would…
why? if you have power from other than fossil fuels, that power can be used to do anything that you would use fossil fuels for.
Fossil fuels aren't 100% of GHG emissions. It's a large percentage, yes, but not 100%. So sure, you've cut 90% or whatever, but not 100%. You're still probably using virgin plastics somewhere, still making concrete, still making asphalt, still making steel, still need refrigerants, etc.
Re: The greenest car in America isn't an EV
#34Anyone know why they don't seem to have looked at Tesla at all? Weird to omit the largest EV seller in America by far.
They did. Have a look at the spreadsheet from the report. The Tesla Model 3 Long Range has a Green Score of 64. Not sure where they pulled the chart from in the NYT article, but it would still fall at 11; just off the list. The actual data if sorted by "Green Score" (tried to look up the scoring methodology but the website is down: https://greenercars.org/news/2024-methodology-update ) looks like this before you hit…
Thanks for the sheet this was super enlightening. I was comparing my pacifica phev with my polestar, and the pacfica has a green score of 57, vs 53 for the polestar. This really seems like a methodology issue likely related to hours of operation vs miles driven.
Re: The greenest car in America isn't an EV
#35This is a big red flag: > "The GreenerCars report analyzes 1,200 cars available in 2024, assessing both the carbon dioxide emissions of the vehicle while it’s on the road and the emissions of manufacturing the car and battery." First, fossil fuel consumption, not carbon dioxide emissions, is the important metric if you're concerned about climate. Humans eat food and breath out carbon dioxide; it's not going to change…
Yeah - also: tailpipe emissions are a thing. Not emitting byproducts of hydrocarbon combustion around humans seems like it might be a good idea.
Strong smell of Toyota’s famously outsized lobbying dollars on this article.
Re: The greenest car in America isn't an EV
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think there's any reason to think those VW cars are the most environmentally friendly. There are diesel vehicles which get more than 44mpg highway (for example Chevy Cruz gets more than 50). They certainly are above average though
I actually wasn't aware there were any other small economy diesel cars with modern emissions tech in the US market, not alone from a US company, but the same point would likely apply to the Cruz. Other diesel cars I am aware of from BMW, Mercedes, and Jaguar are much bigger and less fuel efficient vehicles, or much older models with very poor emissions.
IIRC, the diesel Chevy Cruze hasn't been made for a couple of years. I was somewhat interested in buying one for a while but I already have a 03 VW Jetta diesel which satisfies my desire for a manual diesel car.
Re: The greenest car in America isn't an EV
#37This is a big red flag: > "The GreenerCars report analyzes 1,200 cars available in 2024, assessing both the carbon dioxide emissions of the vehicle while it’s on the road and the emissions of manufacturing the car and battery." First, fossil fuel consumption, not carbon dioxide emissions, is the important metric if you're concerned about climate. Humans eat food and breath out carbon dioxide; it's not going to change…
The “consumption” of fossil fuels is not the important metric from a climate change perspective. It is the CO2 emissions that result from that consumption. There is a direct relationship between the amount of consumption of fossil fuels and the amount of emission of CO2. The article is entirely correct in using CO2 as the measure. Yes, CO2 is emitted by multiple processes and there are some counter processes that ret…
Tracking fossil fuel production is more sensible as the ultimate goal is to keep all fossil fuel in the ground. Under a rational system, this would mean starting off with eliminating the global trade in fossil fuels as soon as possible, and the way to do that is to ensure all fossil fuel importers switch to renewable energy imports, which is cheaper in the long run for the importers.