
The Green Car Vision Award is an annual award granted by the ''
Green Car Journal
''Green Car Journal'' a monthly publication created in 1992, now published as an annual, focuses on green vehicles and environmentally friendly energy and technologies. The founder and editor is Ron Cogan. Co-founder and executive publisher throu ...
''. In contrast with its
Green Car of the Year
The Green Car of the Year is a ''Car of the Year'' award from the ''Green Car Journal''.
The winner is selected by an 11-member panel comprising automotive and environmental experts. Invited jurors have included Mario Andretti; Carroll Shelby, Ja ...
award, which only considers
production vehicle
Production vehicles or production cars are mass-produced models of automobiles offered for sale to the public and can be legally driven on public roads. Legislation and other industrial rules define the production vehicle within particular cou ...
s that make the most significant environmental advancements, the Green Car Vision Award considers
pre-production vehicles with more than one functional
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
in existence and that may be in the early stages of commercialization. Vehicles that are part of a demonstration fleet or other program that finds them regularly driven by people other than employees of their manufacturer may also be considered. Nominees may also include a modification of an existing vehicle model, such as a conversion to another type of power like electric drive.
[
The Green Car Vision Award was created in 2008, and the winners were announced at the Washington Auto Show.] In 2013 the award was changed to Green Car Technology Award, which unlike the previous award, is not limited to a specific car model.
Winners
:2008 — Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
fuel cell vehicle
A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate el ...
.
:::The other four 2009 nominees were the BMW Hydrogen 7, a bi-fuel gasoline-hydrogen car, the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car, the Phoenix Electric SUT all-electric sports utility truck, and the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid
The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid (often abbreviated as the Prius and known as the Prius Prime in North America, South Korea, and New Zealand from 2016 to 2024) is a plug-in hybrid liftback manufactured by Toyota . The first-generation model was ...
.[
:2009 —]Chevrolet Volt
The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle car that was manufactured by General Motors, and also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand and the Buick Velite 5 in China, and with a different fascia as the ...
plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...
car.
:::The other 2009 nominees were the Fisker Karma
The Fisker Karma is a luxury vehicle, luxury plug-in Range extender (vehicle), range-extended electric sports sedan produced by Fisker Automotive between 2011 and 2012. The cars were manufactured at Valmet Automotive in Finland.
The United St ...
plug-in hybrid, the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car, the Mini E all-electric car, and the Mitsubishi i MiEV all-electric car.[
:2010 —]Nissan Leaf
The is a battery-electric car manufactured by Nissan, produced since 2010. It was offered exclusively as a 5-door hatchback until 2025, which since then has become a crossover SUV model. The term "LEAF" serves as a backronym to ''leading envir ...
battery electric car.
:::The other 2010 nominees were the Coda electric sedan, the Ford Focus BEV electric car
An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
, the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell
The F-Cell is a fuel cell vehicle, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle developed by Daimler AG. Two different versions are known - the previous version was based on the Mercedes-Benz A-Class#W168, Mercedes-Benz A-Class, and the new model is based ...
hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
fuel cell vehicle
A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate el ...
, and the Toyota Prius PHV plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...
.[
:2011 — Ford Focus Electric battery electric car.
:::The four 2011 finalists were the ]Honda Fit EV
The second generation Honda Fit is a subcompact car or supermini manufactured by Honda from 2007 until 2014. It debuted on 17 October 2007 at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show.
__TOC__
Overview
The vehicle offered a longer wheelbase than its pred ...
, Mitsubishi i MiEV, Toyota RAV4 EV
The Toyota RAV4 EV is an all-electric version of the popular RAV4 SUV produced by Toyota until 2014. Two generations of the EV model were sold in California, and to fleets elsewhere in the US, with a gap of almost ten years between them.
The ...
, and Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric.
:2012 — Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...
.
:::The four 2012 finalists were the Tesla Model S
The Tesla Model S is a battery-electric, four-door full-size car produced by the American automaker Tesla since 2012. The automaker's second vehicle and longest-produced model, the Model S has both received mixed reviews from critics and a ...
and the BMW i3
The BMW i3 is an electric car that was manufactured by German marque BMW from 2013 to 2022. The i3 was BMW's first mass-produced zero-emissions vehicle, zero emissions vehicle and was launched as part of BMW's electric vehicle ''BMW i'' sub-bra ...
electric cars, the Cadillac ELR
The Cadillac ELR is a two-door, four-passenger luxury car, luxury plug-in hybrid compact car, compact coupé manufactured and marketed by Cadillac for model years, model years (MY) 2014 and 2016 – with a hiatus for MY 2015. Using a retuned vers ...
plug-in hybrid, and the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell electric car. The winner was announced on January 26 at the 2012 Washington Auto Show.
See also
* Green vehicle
A green vehicle, clean vehicle, eco-friendly vehicle or environmentally friendly vehicle is a road motor vehicle that produces less harmful impacts to the environment than comparable conventional internal combustion engine vehicles running o ...
* Green Car of the Year
The Green Car of the Year is a ''Car of the Year'' award from the ''Green Car Journal''.
The winner is selected by an 11-member panel comprising automotive and environmental experts. Invited jurors have included Mario Andretti; Carroll Shelby, Ja ...
* List of motor vehicle awards
This list of motor vehicle awards is an index to articles that describe notable awards given to motor vehicles. The list is broken into "car of the year", other car awards, awards for commercial vehicles including trucks and trains, engines and pe ...
References
Motor vehicle awards
Green cars
Awards established in 2008
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