Ford brings hybrid, EV work in-house to beat Toyota

lol.
I guess it must be the twizy -
Renault Twizy EV sells 1.6k in June, 6k LTD | PriusChat
Does it matter than it can't be sold in the US? It does have a lower ghg emission and zero tail pipe emissions. Now if they only could go to 3 wheels it might be legally the greenest car

 

If you are not going to pair a usage profile with the vehicle, then all these emission comparisons are somewhat misleading. I think all these vehicles will outperform the others when operated in their target usage profiles. Just like a bicycle will outperform a bev for the two block trip to the friend's house and the Prius will outperform the Volt for the 200 mile trip to grandma's house. The Volt shines for 30-40 mile daily commutes. Somewhere above the 40 miles it crosses over with the Prius, depending on charging opportunities, probably at about 70-140 miles.

 

Yes. The 2000 Insight is rated 209 g/mi CO2 (41 upstream + 168 tailpipe). Prius PHV is rated 210 g/mi national average. The regular Prius is rated 222 g/mi.

If we want to cherry pick, Prius PHV is rated 180-200 g/mi in the following 20 states:

Alaska
Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Idaho
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Maryland
Maine
Montana
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Wyoming

In term of the impact, Prius made the most impact because it sold so many copies. The power of mass produced vehicle that doesn't use aluminium frame. As John H pointed out, we can't ignore the size and profile of the usage.

 

Yes, people who are self-aware enough to buy plugins anytime in the next decade will generally buy the car that fits their driving pattern well based on distance traveled, charging opportunities, and access to low-carbon electrical power. Plugins will not be distributed randomly across all drivers. It's good to have a variety of options.

At the moment, about 1/3 of all plugins are being purchased in California which has low-carbon grid power by default and many plugin buyers have solar. Here in Northern California, PG&E default grid is 0.524 pounds CO2 per kWh. I'm charging about 12.25 kWh per full charge at 240V. I drive 45 miles to work with 3-6 miles left in the battery when I get there. I recharge at work and/or along the way home.

My round-trip is 90-100 miles on 2 full charges which works out to 24.5 kWh or 13 pounds of CO2 at average emissions (fortunately, I can work at home on some days). That is about 250 Wh per mile or around 60g CO2 per mile on my commute. I could drive another 200+ miles on gasoline at my usual 45+ mpg to visit a friend's house in Sacramento for dinner before heading home and still emit no more CO2 than a Prius getting 55 mpg on gasoline during same 300+ mile drive. And, I'm assuming that I can't recharge at his house during dinner because he's staying at his rural vacation cabin in the Sierra foothills that doesn't have grid power....

Next spring PG&E will finally start offering an option for 100% renewable power for an extra fee so my emissions will get even better.

 

The figure for 209 g/mi Insight is with manual transmission. The automatic Insight (2001) is rated 236 g/mi.