At the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday, the Honda City Natural Gas won the award for being the Green Car of the Year 2012. The car has proven itself as the cleanest running among the internal combustion vehicles. This was certified by the U.S.E.P.A (acronym for United States Environmental Protection Agency). The vehicle has topped the fuel economy ratings having achieved 48 MPGe on highways.
Green Car Journal issues this annual award. Its publisher and editor Ron Cogan said that none of the vehicles could match the Civic Natural Gas when it came to travelling on the American highways, and that Honda had deserved this recognition for a long time. He added that this new generation vehicle from Honda is not only restricted to its core feature of better fuel efficiency. It also had a roomier and handsome new design with the emission levels of its tailpipe unmatched by all other internal combustion vehicles that have been produced.
The Green Car Journal adds that natural gas is one of the cleanest fuels today and being sourced domestically, it has the benefit of being 30% lesser priced than gasoline. This is also a fast filling fuel and a car can be fully filled within 5 minutes at fuelling stations offering natural gas dispensers.
The Civic Natural Gas holds the distinction of being the only passenger vehicle, operating on natural gas that is produced in mass. The vehicle was first introduced in the year 1998 and the 2012 model is the fifth generation of this vehicle. The vehicle has a price tag of $26,155 and has been made available to 200 Honda dealers across 36 states.
There were six judges on the panel of this years Green Car of the Year award jury and the Civic Natural Gas has been chosen from a strong field that had 5 contenders, in which were Mitsubishi I, Ford Focus Electric, Volkswagen Passat TDI and the Toyota Prius V.
Prominent among the jury members were the Sierra Club Chairman, Carl Pope; President of Natural Resources Defense Council – Frances Beinecke and President of Ocean Futures Society – Jean-Michel Cousteau.
The versatility of the finalists of the Green Car of the Year highlighted the fact that a single point solution to meet the transportation challenges did not exist, said Cogan. In fact, all automobile manufacturers have been exploring greener technologies in many forms.