The Cars of the 2014 Eco-Run

Photo: AJAC

By: Steven BochenekSpecial to EnviroDad.com

From May 6 to 8, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) conducted the 2014 Eco-Run, its third annual. Eco-Run?

It was a showcase of 19 of the greenest new vehicles on the market. It was a also a competition between 19 select AJAC members, vying for the Green Jersey. You win it for finishing soonest, but for fuel efficiency, as determined by data-gathering technology attached to the car by the eggheads from FleetCarma in Waterloo, Ontario. (To see who won, skip to the bottom of this article.) However, dangerous under-speeding and hypermiling habits were banned. Anyone logged purposely going slowly lost points.

Over three days, we each drove arbitrarily assigned cars, six different times. If our name was matched with a car we’d already driven, it went back in the hat — a sensible way to prevent car favouritism by drivers. (Not all green vehicles are equally fun to pilot.)

The legs of Eco-Run were never longer than 70km. There were two electric cars and we were traversing down some precipitous heights on British Columbia’s Sea to Sky Corridor. We were blessed with magnificent weather until the final event, which was sadly, also the most public.

Below lists the vehicles, their fuel efficiency scores averaged throughout the three days, and prices. Given that some rides don’t use fuel and some weigh four times as much as others, they were all treated to FleetCarma’s bell curve (probably more of a cosecant wave).

Photo: AJAC

Cadillac ELR — In EREV mode: city 2.8 L equivalent/100km, highway 2.9 L equivalent/100km; in Range extender mode: 7.6 L equivalent/100km, highway 6.7 L equivalent/100km;  $78,250

Chevrolet Cruze Turbo Clean Diesel — city 7.5 L/100km /highway 4.2 L/100km;  $25,045

Ford C-MAX Energi — city 1.9 L/100km, highway 4.5 L/100km; $42,864

Honda Accord Hybrid — city 3.7 L/100km, highway 4 L/100km; $35,690

Kia Optima Hybrid — city 5.6 L/100km, highway 5 L/100km; $36,195

Hyundai Elantra — city 8.4 L/100km, highway 5.6

Lincoln MKZ Hybrid — city 4.2 L/100km, highway 4.3 L/100km; $50,350

Mazda3 SKYACTIV — city 6.8 L/100km, highway 4.8 L/100km; $21,395

Mazda6 i-ELOOP — city 7.2 L/100km, highway 4.9 L/100km; $35,295

Mercedes-Benz ­E 250 BlueTEC 4MATIC — city 7.3 L/100km, highway 4.7 L/100km; $61,300

Mercedes-Benz ­GL 350 BlueTEC 4MATIC — city 11.9 L/100km, highway 8.6 L/100km; $89,380

MINI Cooper — city 6.8 L/100km, highway 4.7 L/100km; $25,740

Mitsubishi i-MiEV EV ­­— a range ‘up to 155km’; $33,998

Nissan Altima — city 7.5 L/100km, highway 5.1 L/100km; $29,128

Nissan Leaf EV — a range ‘up to 135km’; $31,698

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid — city 10.4 L/100km, highway 8 L/100km; $126,635

Ram 1500 EcoDiesel — city 10.6 L/100km, highway 7.4 L/100km; $70,090

Volvo S60 Drive-E T5 FWD — city 9.4 L/100km, highway 6.3 L/100km; $51,050

The winner this year?  Congratulations to Jim Kenzie of Motoring TV and Torstar who achieved an exceptional efficiency score of 99.5%. I came in fifth with 93.9%. The lowest score was 86.6. Matt Stevens of FleetCarma said he’s used to seeing 60s and low 70s from the public.  So it was a tough crowd.

Steven Bochenek, is a Toronto-based AJAC writer and proponent of smaller automobiles and bicycles for all.

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