Hybrid Scorecard See  which vehicles make the most of hybrid technology for the environment, and your pocketbook.

Hybrid Scorecard Findings: Advice for Consumers, Lessons for Automakers

Since the launch of the Hybrid Scorecard in 2009, the hybrid market has shifted, but not significantly. “Hollow” hybrids such as the Saturn Aura Hybrid and Chevy Malibu Hybrid, which delivered little environmental benefit but attempted to cash in on the hybrid moniker, have left the market. But more “muscle” hybrids (which use technology to boost power instead of significantly improving environmental performance) have increasingly taken their place in model year 2011; for example, the Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid gets less than 10 percent improvement in its global warming emissions over the conventional Touareg, while other vehicles exceeded a 40 percent emissions reduction.

There have been some surprises in hybrid value as well. Several luxury automakers, usually known for adding expensive extras, kept the hybrid premium at a minimum—or, in the case of the new Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, charged no premium at all. In the non-luxury segment, the Honda Insight now comes with a lower sticker price than before, giving cost-conscious consumers better options in a time of surging gas prices.

Despite this progress, there is still a lot of untapped opportunity to use hybrid technology to boost efficiency in every size and class; many promising improvements are still on auto engineers’ drawing boards. And while we evaluate 34 different hybrid models on the market, only a handful comprise the vast majority of sales—the Prius alone accounts for more than half the sales total. Automakers need to move hybrid technology beyond the niche market by offering more hybrids with strong environmental performance and a reasonable sticker price.

A look at recent hybrid sales (between January and April 2011) shows that the 10 highest-selling vehicles have a few things in common. First, nearly all have an EPA combined fuel economy rating above 30 miles per gallon (mpg); the exception is the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which earns 28 mpg but has the highest fuel economy of any 7-passenger vehicle on the market. In addition, all 10 earn Environmental Improvement scores of 6 or better, and Hybrid Value scores ranging from “Good” to “Superior.” Lastly, more than half of these hybrids have a Forced Features rating of “none” or “$.” Automakers that want to improve their hybrid sales should learn from these observations and focus on maximizing fuel economy improvements at a fair price, without loading on the forced features.

The next round of clean car standards—which will apply to vehicles in model years 2017 through 2025—are currently being negotiated. Hybrid technology stands poised, much as more fuel-efficient conventional technology did before the current standards, to play an integral role in transforming the transportation market in America. But only strong federal fuel economy standards—at least 60 mpg—will push automakers to use hybrid technology to its full potential. The vehicles currently at the top of the Hybrid Scorecard prove this CAN be done. Strong clean car standards ensure it WILL be done across the board.

Environmental Improvement Score

• Buy the most efficient vehicle that meets your needs. We sort the Hybrid Scorecard first and foremost by its combined (highway/city) fuel economy. That is because we believe consumers reap the greatest benefit by purchasing a vehicle that goes as far as possible on a gallon of gas. The Environmental Improvement score rates how each model stacks up against its conventional counterpart in both fuel economy and emissions performance.  If you are looking for the vehicle that gets the most miles per gallon with the lowest emissions, that vehicle remains the Toyota Prius.
  
  
• Downsized engine = upsized environmental improvement. The luxury Lincoln MKZ Hybrid left no doubt that one of hybrid technology’s greatest environmental advantages comes when an automaker combines the electric motor with an efficient gasoline engine. Instead of mating the hybrid system to the conventional six-cylinder MKZ, Lincoln chose the more efficient four-cylinder engine used in the Ford Fusion. The Lexus CT 200h also benefited significantly from engine downsizing. The time seems ripe (if not overripe) for a significant expansion of hybrids mated with efficient four-cylinder engines in models that up until now have been available only in six-plus cylinder varieties.
  
  
• Four-cylinder hybridization offers the greatest benefit. As automakers have begun to use four-cylinder engines more efficiently, one might think that this might reduce the impact of hybrid technology on improving efficiency and reducing emissions. A number of models defy this notion, starting with the Toyota Prius, which reduces global warming emissions 44 percent and increases fuel efficiency by 22 mpg over the four-cylinder Matrix. Other hybrid models that decrease global warming emissions by at least 25 percent and boast a 10-plus mpg boost over their four-cylinder conventional equivalents include the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight, and the new Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.
  
  
• Hollow hybrids gone, but muscle hybrids remain. The Saturn Aura Hybrid and Chevy Malibu Hybrid, which had last year’s worst Environmental Improvement scores are no longer available (indeed, GM is working on a much-improved, genuine mild hybrid system for 2012 models). But automakers, led by German manufacturers BMW, Porsche, and Volkswagen, are still putting up muscle hybrids that simply don’t deliver the environmental improvement expected from a hybrid vehicle.

• Smog still matters. General Motors’ hybrid vehicles are still being plagued by poor smog-forming emissions performance, as are new hybrid offerings by BMW and Volkswagen. Hybrid technology and modern emissions control systems offer the unique quality of providing a “no compromise” vehicle that does not trade smog forming emissions for global warming emissions, and vice versa — something that other efficient technologies such as diesel engines and lean-burn gasoline engines continue to struggle with. Pairing an electric motor with a dirtier gasoline engine simply does not capitalize on what this technology can offer for environmental gains. Indeed, even the most efficient cars in the GM fleet, the Chevy Cruze Eco and plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, only rate a relatively poor 6 out of 10 on the EPA smog-forming pollution scale.

• No score for Chevy Volt? While the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid, does have a conventional model against which to compare it (the Chevy Cruze), there are a variety of factors that affect a plug-in hybrid's environmental performance. For example, the resources used for generating electricity (to charge the vehicle) vary widely in their environmental impact; electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas have higher global warming and smog-forming emissions than electricity generated from renewable resources such as wind and solar. Driving habits also affect a plug-in hybrid's emissions performance. We are developing a new tool that will allow us to give a more accurate environmental assessment of the Chevy Volt and other plug-in vehicles, and hope to have that available to consumers soon.

Hybrid Value

• Why is the luxury class home to superior value? Downsizing. All of the vehicles that earned a Hybrid Value score of “Superior” were luxury hybrids (Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, Lexus CT 200h, and Mercedes S400). These vehicles earned high value scores despite their differences in Environmental Improvement score (which ranged from a high of 9.5 to a low of 5.2). What is their common thread? Each model has a downsized gasoline engine compared with its conventional equivalent. This is a growing trend that, if combined with significant emissions and efficiency improvements, could make the luxury hybrid market an impact player.
  
  
• High mpg + good hybrid value = good choice. In the age of $4.00-per-gallon gasoline, vehicles with both high fuel economy and Hybrid Value scores of “Good” or higher are good consumer choices. These vehicles offer hybrid technology at a reasonable cost, and deliver significant improvements in global warming emissions and miles per gallon. The new Hyundai Sonata Hybrid merits attention in the sedan class, as its nearly 30 percent global warming emissions improvement is combined with a relatively low base sticker price. And while the hybrid premium for the Toyota Highlander Hybrid drivetrain keeps it from earning a Hybrid Value score of “Very Good,” it does continue to push the bar higher for a seven-passenger vehicle with an average fuel economy of 28 mpg. Much the same for the Lexus RX 450h, a midsize SUV that is the first in its class to achieve a combined 30 mpg.
  
  
• Poor value = little bang for your gasoline buck. Every vehicle that earned a Hybrid Value rating of “Poor” could not merit even an Environmental Improvement score of 5, and achieved only a 2 to 4 mpg increase in fuel economy over their conventional counterparts.

Forced Features

• Nearly half of luxury models have no forced features. Six of the 14 luxury hybrid models have no forced features at all, with three others carrying a Forced Features score of only “$.”These models show an increasing trend toward automakers giving luxury consumers a true choice to invest in cleaner car technology. But remember, luxury vehicles already come with a lot of bells and whistles.
  
  
• Non-Luxury hybrids start to lose their forced features. The Toyota Prius, Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, and Honda Insight are all focused on offering high-mpg hybrids while keeping overall costs down. Each has chosen to limit forced features as a pathway to keeping the MSRP under control. This is good, but the fact that there are only a handful of models that go this route shows that there is room for improvement.
  
  
• Muscle hybrids hold back the field. Despite overall progress in paring back on padded price tags, several models still come loaded with thousands of dollars’ worth of forced features. The muscle hybrids (like BMW’s ActiveHybrid X6 and Volkswagen’s Touareg) are among the worst culprits because consumers are forced to not only pay for pricey extras that are not included in their conventional counterparts’ baseline models, but also pay inflated prices for a hybrid system that offers little environmental value. Hybrid vehicles loaded up with extras can hide the real value of hybrids and push economically minded hybrid buyers out of the market. 

Hybrid Scorecard Home

Additional Resources

• Hybrid Scorecard Methodology
• Hybrid Scorecard Individual Vehicle Summaries
• Who's Got Hybrids? -- Consumer View on Hybrid Models