Many of us suspeted this already, but they dont get much cleaner than this, amigos......Even cleaner than the non-CARB-state Prius...

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/E-H...cHybrid-06.htm

I don't think the EPA has ever rated a car 10 Air Pollution AND a 10 Greenhouse Gas score, so a 9.5 and a 10 probably matches the highest score ever.

 

It matches the Prius.

 

Not in the non-Carb states...The Prius is rated 8.0 and the HCH is rated 9.0 on Air Pollution. Look at this page for the 8.0 rated Prius....

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/midcar-06.htm

and this page for the 9.0 rated non-CARB HCH:

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/smcar-06.htm#comp

No big deal, just mainly wanted to point out the 9.5 and the 10 which has not yet been bested, as far as I know. More evidence that the Hybrids are mucho cleano.

 

For those who don't know, CARB refers to states like California and New York that have extra-stringent pollution controls. The HCH-1 had two versions: PZEV and ULEV. The PZEV was sold in California and New York but it lacked lean-burn and the gas tank was 1.3 gallons smaller. For the HCH-2 and the Prius, there are still different versions of the car but the differences are very minor. That's why, in lars' original post's link, the HCH-2 gets different scores of 9 and 9.5 for air pollution depending on in which states it's sold.

 

Interesting, thanks for the info. So why don't they just sell the cleanest version in every state? What's the advantage of the 'dirtier' version?

 

I assume the "dirtier" version is cheaper. They sell for the same amount but the company makes less money off the cleaner ones.

 

Yes, charging extra for "California Emissions" used to be common practice. I don't know if any manufacturers still do it.

 

The cars are the same AFIK, but the fuel is different in non-CARB states, and thus the emissions ratings are different. The two factors are sulphur content and ethanol content (oxygenation), so hopefully when better fuel reaches the 'dirty' states the emissions ratings will be bumped up as well. Canada has adopted CARB-like emissions requirements, so we never had the ULEV HCH.