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2015 Green Car Of The Year finalists announced, run alt-fuel gamut

The 2015 edition of the Green Car of the Year award is following right in the footsteps of previous years with a variety of alt-fuel powertrains making the just-announced finalists list. You've got your plug-in vehicle (the BMW i3), your compressed natural gas (the Chevy Impala Bi-Fuel), your high-efficiency diesel (the Audi A3 TDI), your 40+ mile-per-gallon gas engine (the Honda Fit) and, finally, a car that can do a little bit of everything (the VW Golf). The Golf is available – at least in some parts of the US – with three different powertrains: a 2.0-liter diesel, a gasoline engine and all-electric drive. The Impala can burn either natural gas or gasoline in its 3.6-liter engine. The A3 is an efficiency champ, able to get 73.5 mpg on some European tests. The i3 can be a pure electric vehicle or come with a short range extending engine. And the Fit brings 41 miles to the gallon in a practical, affordable package. The GCOY award is announced every year at the Los Angeles Auto Show by Green Car Journal. The committee doesn't just take the fuel-saving technology into account, but also a vehicle's "availability to the mass market." Last year, the Honda Accord Hybrid/Plug-In Hybrid won top honors, following up on wins from the Ford Fusion models (plug-in hybrid and hybrid) for 2013, the Honda Civic Natural Gas for 2012 and the Chevrolet Volt for 2011. FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2015 "GREEN CAR OF THE YEAR"" Green Car Journal to Reveal Winner of 10th Annual Award at LA Auto Show" Press & Trade Days, November 20 LOS ANGELES, CA (October 21, 2014) – Green Car Journal has announced its five finalists for the magazine's high-profile 2015 Green Car of the Year® program. The 2015 models include the Audi A3 TDI, BMW i3, Chevrolet Impala Bi-Fuel, Honda Fit, and VW Golf. The Green Car of the Year® award, an honor widely recognized as the auto industry's most important environmental accolade, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. An increasing number of vehicle models are considered for the Green Car of the Year® program each year, a reflection of the auto industry's expanding efforts in offering new vehicles with higher efficiency and improved environmental impact. Green Car Journal has been honoring the most important "green" vehicles every year at the LA Auto Show, since its inaugural award announced at the show in 2005.

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.

Fernando Alonso tries out fast motorcycles and Senna's McLaren

Honda closed out its racing year yesterday with its annual Thanks Day at Motegi. The event brought out an array of competition machinery and the drivers and riders who race them. That included Fernando Alonso, but rather than bring his Honda-powered McLaren, the two-time world champ took the opportunity to try out some different equipment. While MotoGP rider Marc Marquez slipped behind the wheel of the NSX Concept GT, his countryman Alonso hopped on his RC213V motorcycle for a couple of laps. Fernando isn't the first racer to swap between F1 and motorcycles: Michael Schumacher tried his hand and motorcycle racing from time to time, Valentino Rossi tested Ferrari grand prix cars on numerous occasions, and of course John Surtees won championships in both spheres – but he remains the only one to have done so. Fernando also had the chance to drive a McLaren-Honda MP4/6, just like the one with which Ayrton Senna successfully defended his title in the 1991 Formula One World Championship. That was the first time McLaren ran a Honda V12, but the last time a V12 – or a manual transmission – won the championship. After the following season, Honda and McLaren parted ways – only to be reunited this year with Alonso and Button behind the wheel. While Alonso was toying around with Senna's car, Takuma Sato – who drove Hondas in Formula One and now in Indy – tried his hand at the 1968 Honda RA301. That machine was also powered by a Honda V12, but at 440 horsepower, was far less potent than the 735+hp version that would later power Senna's. John Surtees drove one just like this in the '68 world championship, retiring from most of the races on the calendar but scoring two podiums from the three that he did finish. Marquez and his teammate Dani Pedrosa also competed in the CBR250 spec race, rode the mid-80s-era NSR500 bikes. They drove in four-wheel spec race as well in modified Honda N-One kei cars. The event served to cap a full year of racing for the Japanese automaker, which competes in a range of racing disciplines including F1, Indy, Super GT, the World Touring Car Championship, and numerous classes of motorcycle racing. Featured Gallery Fernando Alonso at Honda Thanks Day 2015 View 11 Photos News Source: Honda via Autosport Motorsports Honda motogp