Toyota, Honda Lead the Way in Automotive Environmental Award
Competition
Toyota won most Awards, Honda highest percentage of models recognized
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Jan. 22 For the third consecutive year,
Toyota Motor Co. has topped the Automotive Market Environmental Superiority
(AMES) Awards with 11 wins for 2003. General Motors and Ford Motor Co.
followed closely with 10 awards each. Honda had the highest percentage of its
models recognized by AMES Awards with a 54 percent success rating while
Volkswagen came in second with 50 percent of its offerings winning awards.
The evaluation criteria for the AMES Awards, based on the cradle-to-grave
concept of Life Cycle Assessment, uses tailpipe emissions and fuel economy,
coupled with proprietary forecasting technology, to develop a vehicle's
environmental superiority rating.
Award winners represent the upper quartile of environmental performance in
each of 8 car and 9 light truck vehicle-utility classes. According to AMES,
by choosing an award winner over a non-winner in a vehicle-utility class,
consumers can annually reduce fuel consumption by 530 million gallons, avoid
the release of 13 billion pounds of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere and improve air quality.
This year's awards, the fourth annual, were announced jointly by AMES
Award LLC, the automotive industry's leading authority on environmental
performance and R. L. Polk & Co., the auto industry's most trusted resource
for registration-based marketing solutions.
"The paradigm in today's market is that consumers can only make a
contribution to environmental sustainability by choosing a hybrid, fuel cell
or electric vehicle," said William Mattick, president and CEO of AMES Award
LLC.
"However, the emerging paradigm is that by choosing an environmentally
superior vehicle that meets their utility needs, represented by our award
winners, consumers can make an important contribution to reduce the potential
of global warming and subsequent climate change."
Stephen Polk, chairman, president and CEO of R. L. Polk & Co. added, "This
year's AMES Award winners represent a very diverse class. Developing and
producing 'greener' vehicles has clearly become very important to all
manufacturers, both foreign and domestic."
2003 Model Year AMES Award Winners
Subcompact Car Category: Honda Civic*, Honda Insight*, Mazda
Protege, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla,
Toyota Prius
Compact Car Category: Oldsmobile Alero, Pontiac Grand Am,
Volkswagen Passat*
Mid-size Car Category: Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Saturn L
Series*, Toyota Camry*
Full-size Car Category: Buick LeSabre, Pontiac Bonneville
Premium Car Category: Audi A4/S4, BMW 3-Series, Lexus ES300,
Volvo S60, Volvo 70 Series
Luxury Car Category: Audi A6/S6, BMW 5-Series, Lexus LS430,
Mercedes Benz E-Class*, Mercedes Benz S-
Class, Volvo S80
Sporty Car Category: Acura RSX, Mini Cooper, Volkswagen New
Beetle
Sports Car Category: Audi TT, BMW Z4, Lexus SC430, Mazda Miata,
Mercedes CLK-Class, Toyota MR2
Minivan Category: Chevrolet Venture, Chrysler Voyager, Dodge
Caravan, Oldsmobile Silhouette, Pontiac
Montana
Full-Size Van Category: Ford E150*/E250*
Compact Pickup Category: Mazda B-Series, Subaru Baja
Full-Size Pickup Category: Ford F150, Toyota Tundra
Compact SUV Category: Honda CR-V, Subaru Forrester, Suzuki
Vitara, Toyota RAV4*
Mid-Size SUV Category: Buick Rendezvous, Honda Pilot, Jeep Grand
Cherokee, Pontiac Aztek, Toyota Highlander
Mid-Size Luxury SUV Category: Acura MDX, Volvo XC90
Full-Size SUV Category: Ford Expedition, Mitsubishi Montero
Full-Size Luxury SUV Category: Lexus GX470, Mercedes Benz G-Class
*Denotes AMES Award winner all four years
