The United Kingdom's Environmental Transport Association (ETA) annual awards have named the Honda Civic Hybrid Britain's greenest car for the second straight year. Finishing ahead of the Vauxhall Corsa 13.CTDi and Toyota Yaris 1.4 Diesel, the Civic won out for its superior combination of engine size, fuel consumption, noise pollution and safety impact on pedestrians.
The award for Greenest Off-Roader went to the Toyota RAV4 diesel and the Greenest Luxury Car award went to the Jaguar XJ 2.7 diesel. The wrong end of the list was dominated by luxury brands including Lamborghini, Ferrari and Aston Martin, proving that making a car really fast still requires a lot of petrol.
Analysis: Small, light vehicles get great fuel economy and are unlikely to mow down pedestrians while large, fast sports cars are made to go even faster by using bigger engines that suck more fuel. That's why the Tesla Roadster is such a revelation - a fast, sporty vehicle that runs on electricity and has zero emissions. By the looks of this list, it will have the other sports cars beaten hands down for environmental performance for a while yet.
