Dirty Diesel

What's the most polluting ride around? The answer may surprise you

By Dawn Stover Posted 07.10.2008 at 2:27 pm 4 Comments

Volkswagen Touareg IFCAR

In the latest Forbes list of the 10 worst polluters, you'll find the usual suspects including the Hummer H2 and Chevy Suburban 2500 (tied for fifth place). But at the top of the list is an SUV that hasn't received its fair share of environmental scorn: the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI.

The Environmental Protection Agency gave the TDI an air pollution score of 1 out of 10, the lowest possible, thanks to a beefy turbo-diesel engine that emits embarrassing amounts of exhaust. The Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD, in second place, also got an EPA air pollution score of 1. Most vehicles score a 6, and hybrids such as the Ford Escape, Honda Civic and Toyota Prius rate a 9.5.

And don't assume that the worst polluters are always SUVs or trucks. Several performance cars from Mercedes-Benz and BMW made the Forbes list, and these gasoline-powered cars have even bigger carbon footprints than the diesel TDI because of their poor fuel efficiency. (The EPA air pollution scores that Forbes used for its rankings are based on smog-forming emissions rather than on greenhouse gas emissions.)

Fortunately, the Touareg diesel that is expected to go on sale later this year will have a new exhaust system that could bring its EPA air pollution score up to 6. Several other manufacturers are also introducing cleaner diesels for the 2009 model year.

Previous Article: BMW Planning Electric Minis for California

Next Article: Crashing the Car Business

Want to keep track of the latest concept cars, automotive innovations, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!

4 Comments

link to this comment

tsalzmann

07/12/08 at 11:35 am

Well, just a question how you define polution!!! This is a TDI which still has a much lower gas consumption as a hummer or most other luxury sedans. It is the dust particles in the exhaust which are unhealthy. But from a CO2 emmission, this car is still much better than most gas powered SUVs. I guess I know who paid for that survey.....

link to this comment

dynome

07/21/08 at 12:05 pm

Thank you tsalzmann...

...and yet another stab at killing diesels in the U.S.! Do us all a favor, take a trip to Europe. Take a look at their cars and how small and efficient they are. Then come back and prepare to feel like an idiot. Our huge cars and inefficient gasoline engines are rediculus.

Uneducated people take these kind of "facts" at face value... The truth is, this is a very unscientific survey. They need to show some hard data as well as what exactly they are evaluating. This article could have been written by a high school kid for all we know. Don't assume.

It's kinda like the statistics they show on TV where some candidate is leading the poll 51% to 49%. At the bottom of the screen it shows in very small writing, +/- 4%. Ya, that's worthless... Makes some good headlines though.

link to this comment

NiraliSherni

07/29/08 at 7:42 am

The fact that people are looking for smaller more efficient vehicles is a start, but what would really make a difference is if people moved on to alternative vehicles such as EVs which were powered by sustainable and renewable sources of electricity tapped from sun or wind energy. Current trends to 'go green' are comforting and a beginning at least if not an answer.

link to this comment

tmlmonster63

08/01/08 at 3:42 pm

right. but if you want to go deisel and more specifically TDI the jetta wagon is a great choice.