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Finalists for 2014 Green Car of the Year announced

The list of finalists for the 2014 Green Car of the Year has been announced, and in a genuinely bizarre twist, there's only one hybrid and no electric vehicles among the five contestants, despite the arrival of cars like the BMW i3 and Tesla Model S. Taking the place of the EVs are a pair of diesels, repping a technology that last won a Green Car of the Year award in 2009, when the Audi A3 TDI took the title. No diesel was in the running for last year's award.
Naturally, both of the diesel finalists are fielded by the Germans - with BMW's 328d and Audi's A6 TDI getting the nod. In the case of the 3 Series, BMW installed a 2.0-liter, turbodiesel, capable of delivering 180 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, while returning 45 miles per gallon on the highway. Audi and its larger, 3.0-liter, V6 turbodiesel produce quite a bit more grunt, with 240 hp and 428 lb-ft of grunt, but net a very impressive 38 mpg on the highway in the A6.
Finalists for this year's awards include two diesels, three gas-powered cars and a plug-in hybrid.

Honda lets us 'drive' the FCEV; PHEV with 40-mile EV range

Blue skies for our children. That's Honda's wonderfully Japanese/English slogan that it uses as a fresh shibboleth to describe the company's plan for the future. It's vague enough to be positive, positive enough to be corporate, and corporate enough to be repeated in presentations around the world. I've certainly heard it a million times. The 2015 Honda Meeting in Utsunomiya, Japan this week was, thankfully, held under a brilliant blue autumn sky, on Honda's R&D track filled with the roar of short test drives in the NSX hybrid and the deafening electric silence of the upcoming hydrogen fuel cell FCEV. But that wasn't all. The amount of technical information Honda offered to visiting journalists during the Meeting was nothing short of overwhelming, which is why I'm glad that Autoblog editor Seyth Miersma was along for the ride. We were both at the same event, but we paid special attention to very different things. You can read his take on the four-motor CR-Z EV and the NSX, among other things, here, and get my take on a bunch of Honda's green news below. Honda calls the FCEV the "ultimate clean performance" vehicle. Honda FCEV: A Short First Crack At Honda's "Ultimate" Vehicle Sure, I got to take a lap in the NSX, but the FCEV was my highlight of the event. This was the first time Honda has let outsiders test drive the upcoming fuel cell vehicle, which the company calls the "ultimate clean performance" vehicle and which is due in the US in next year after a launch in Japan in the spring of 2016. The bad news is that the entire length of the test drive was a measly kilometer, totally straight, with one U-turn at the half-way point. So, even though I went through the course three times (two more than originally scheduled), I can't really say I know how the car drives. What I can tell you is that there are two drive modes, normal and sport, with the main difference being that sport offers stronger regenerative braking and a bit quicker acceleration response. The higher regen level does not allow for one-foot driving, sadly. There's a blue orb that glows in the digital dashboard to indicate the power output of the fuel cell stack (not the motor), so even though the car is fairly quiet as you drive, there's some minimal level of connection between the driver and the "engine." Creature comforts include Honda's excellent LaneWatch and a glossy touch screen for the infotainment system.

The accidentally green episode | Autoblog Podcast #486

This week, consumer editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Autoblog Green editor-in-chief Sebastian Blanco join Mike Austin and things go in a "green" direction – it just happened that way. We hit the week's news (including some green-related items), talk about the green things we've been driving, hear part of an interview with the filmmakers behind a new movie about the 2008 bailout, and then answer a listener question. The rundown is below. Remember, if you have a car-related question you'd like us to answer or you want questionable buying advice, send a message or a voice memo to podcast at autoblog dot com. Autoblog Podcast #486 Topics and stories we mention Almost half of VW TDI owners have already agreed to settle The Chevy Colorado has a military-spec, fuel cell-powered cousin 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid 2017 Hyundai Elantra Eco Jeremy's 1975 VW camper van A preview of Live Another Day, a film about the 2008 auto bailout Rundown Intro - 00:00 The news - 05:26 What we've been driving - 18:43 An excerpt from our interview with the Live Another Day filmmakers - 37:20 Listener questions - 40:00 Total Duration: 47:52 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Green Podcasts Honda Hyundai vw diesel scandal