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.

Below we have three top 5 lists, the first showing the vehicles with the lowest lifecycle cost, next the ones with that produce the lowest amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and the final list, which ranks vehicles in terms of producing the least amount of smog-forming pollutants.

Note: Vehicles are ranked from lowest to highest in each category (lowest to highest in lifecycle cost, lowest to highest amount of GHG emissions, and lowest to highest amount of smog-forming pollutants).

Lifecycle Cost

1. Toyota Prius I

2. Toyota Corolla Base

3. Honda Civic DX

4. Ford Focus S

5. Chevrolet Cruze 1fl

GHG Emissions

1. Toyota Prius I

2. Honda Civic Hybrid

3. Ford Fusion Hybrid

4. Toyota Camry Hybrid

5. Ford Escape Hybrid

Smog-Forming Pollutants

1. Honda Civic Hybrid

2. Toyota Prius I

3. Ford Fusion Hybrid

4. Toyota Camry Hybrid

5. Ford Escape Hybrid

For the complete article on green vehicles, which provides an in-depth analysis with charts, click here.