TORRANCE, CA – While many businesses are measuring the environmental impact of the vehicles they operate, acquiring vehicles that produce low amounts of emissions often comes at a cost to the business. With that in mind, Business Fleet asked the vehicle lifecycle experts at Vincentric to provide cost data for popular fleet sedan and crossover models along with their outputs of smog-forming pollutants and greenhouse gases. “We wanted to see which models offer the best combination of lifecycle cost and environmental benefit,” says Chris Brown, editor of Business Fleet.
Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency, Vincentric calculated GHGs (tons per year) and smog (pounds per year) emissions for the 60,000-mile/three-year period. After weighing GHGs and smog outputs against total lifecycle cost, Toyota Prius won hands down. The nation's best-selling hybrid finished first in the lifecycle cost and GHG categories and second in the smog category. Although the Prius has higher acquisition costs than many models, much of those costs are recouped in fuel savings and higher residual values.
