Consumers looking for horsepower with "green" appeal may soon have a way to measure a new car's performance along with its sustainability.
Unveiled Friday at the Accelerating Sustainable Performance Summit at the raceway in Sonoma, the "Sustainable Performance Ranking Metric" is "designed to create a new standard in vehicle excellence that values both sustainability and performance," according to its creators.
An academic research team from Dominican University of California's Green MBA program compiled the data used to form the matrix, which is still in its beta version. Dr. Paul Erickson, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis, provided the engineering review.
For the rankings, sustainability was based on such factors as emissions and fuel mileage. Performance included horsepower, torque and a vehicle's power-to-weight ratio. More factors will be added in as the matrix is refined, say its developers.
The matrix ranks the top 100 selling consumer vehicles, as well as popular hybrid and alternative-fuel models. The highest ranking - 8.9 out of 10 - went to the electric Tesla Model S.
The Sustainable Performance Summit is a day-long forum devoted to finding new ways to prompt more automotive sustainability, both for consumers and in motorsports.
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