I came across the EPA website and looked up 2007 cars. The top car is the 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid, but according to this site it is only the versions sold in the states that follow the California emissions requirements and possibly the neighboring states. Numbers 2 through 7 on the list were also California versions. Number 8 on the list is the TCH for the rest of the country. I didn't realize that the TCH (and the other cars in the top 8 slots) had different versions for environmental reasons.

 

The only thing different is the paperwork. This is from the EPA website:

Why do some apparently identical vehicles have different scores?

A few vehicles have different scores even though they are, by all outward appearances, identical. This is because the manufacturer chose to certify the identical vehicles to different standards: California and Federal. The Air Pollution Score is based on emission standards and, in some cases, the California standards are different from the Federal standards.

 

Thanks for the quote. If you look at that table the TCH definitely does its part to cut down on pollution.

 

And the TCH could actually be cleaner that than the scores show, because the scores simply mean "at mimimum that car will perform to this standard".

 

Probably not. One part of the rating indicates how much CO2 is put into the atmosphere and that is based strictly on EPA ratings. The TCH received a 9 out of 10. I know some people beat the EPA ratings but it would have to make it to 44 mpg to get a 10. With the other rating, which is based on what comes out of the tailpipe, the TCH received a 9.5 out of 10. Can't see it doing much better than that.