Environmental Leader

Honda and Toyota left Detroit’s Big Three in the dust according to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ biennial ranking of the greenest automakers. Honda and Toyota also saw March deliver their best sales ever in the U.S.

For the fourth time in a row, the report (PDF) placed Honda at the top of the organization’s rankings as the country’s greenest automaker. But Toyota lost by only a nose, surging to second place by making significant cuts in global warming pollution. Hyundai-Kia, Nissan and Volkswagen were in the middle of the pack, coming in third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Ford and General Motors, meanwhile, were at the back, and DaimlerChrysler placed last, earning the Rusty Tailpipe Award for the dirtiest automaker.

“There is a huge gap between the cleanest and dirtiest automakers,” said Don MacKenzie, author of the report and a vehicles engineer with UCS. “The winners are using clean technology across their entire fleets. The losers are installing it piecemeal, or not at all.”

In other news, March sales numbers were released today with Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. continuing to outperform the industry, posting its best month ever in the U.S., the Chicago Tribune reports.

Toyota sold 242,675 vehicles, 12 percent more than a year ago. Passenger-car sales jumped 19 percent as the Prius hybrid more than doubled, to 19,156. Prius sales have soared 80 percent this year after Toyota boosted production capacity for the car in Japan.

Honda also set March records for sales in the U.S., according to the International Herald Tribune.