--- title: The ‘Greenest’ New Car You Can Buy Today Is Actually Not an EV description: The Toyota Prius Prime — a plug-in hybrid car, not an EV — is the "greenest" new car to buy, according to a new report. authors: - name: Pete Grieve role: Lead News Reporter url: https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/ bio: Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter at Money who frequently writes about news and trends related to car buying, auto insurance and gas prices. education: University of Chicago, BA Political Science at_money_since: 2022 articles: 603 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/pete_grieve - https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138 - https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4 editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2024-03-01T21:02:15.000Z' modified: '2025-04-15T22:16:45.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - cars - News word_count: 480 canonical: https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Digital generated image of grass and flowers growing inside car's interior. Sustainability and futuristic car concept.](https://img.money.com/2024/03/News-New-Green-Car-America.jpg) The greenest new car you can buy isn’t a fully electric vehicle — it’s a [plug-in hybrid](https://money.com/the-best-plug-in-hybrid-cars/) Toyota Prius. Despite having a gas engine, the Toyota Prius Prime SE is apparently better for the environment than many fully [electric vehicles](https://money.com/best-electric-cars/). That's according to a [new report](https://www.aceee.org/greener-cars) from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) that ranks 2024 model year cars based on a “green score” that assesses the emissions and pollution of a vehicle. In addition to the emissions from driving the vehicle, the scores also factor in emissions from the production of the vehicle. ## Considering a new car? Keep it safe with a Car Warranty ### Getting a free quote is the first step to protecting your investment. Click on your state below to get started! [See Details](https://money.com/pr/f3f27f2b79bc?ap_referrer=%2Fgreenest-car-toyota-prius-prime%2F) ## Plug-in Toyota Prius: greenest car you can buy When the first Toyota Prius models came out more than 20 years ago, they were some of the most fuel-efficient mass market cars in the U.S. Even though the spotlight has shifted to EVs, the Prius remains one of the best options for car shoppers whose top priority is the environment. There are several different Toyota Prius models on the market today. The traditional hybrid Prius, which runs on gas and gets over 55 mpg, is the greenest car available that uses traditional fuel as its sole power source, according to the ACEEE report. The Prius Prime is a plug-in hybrid vehicle that comes with a gas-powered engine and can also be driven for a limited number of miles on electric power. Even though drivers need to fill it up with gas (at least for longer drives), the vehicle still manages to beat out all fully electric vehicles in the greenest cars rankings for 2024. The Prius Prime has a driving range of only about 44 miles on pure electric power, but the relatively small battery size is actually an advantage in some ways because it means there’s less environmental impact from manufacturing it. And depending on your lifestyle, 44 miles could cover most of your daily driving. The vehicle also ranks highly in terms of environmental-friendliness due to its lighter weight, body shape and advanced technology, ACEEE experts told the [*Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/02/28/greenest-cars-plug-in-hybrid/). After the Prius, the next four of the top five cars are fully electric vehicles. Here's the ACEEE's list of the greenest cars: ## Greenest cars overall 1. Toyota Prius Prime SE (PHEV) 2. Lexus RZ 300e (EV) 3. Mini Cooper SE (EV) 4. Nissan Leaf (EV) 5. Toyota bZ4X (EV) 6. Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV) 7. Hyundai Elantra Blue (Hybrid) 8. Hyundai Kona Electric (EV) 9. Toyota Camry LE (Hybrid) 10. Kia EV6 (EV) ## Greenest cars that use gas 1. Toyota Prius 2. Hyundai Elantra Hybrid Blue 3. Toyota Camry Hybrid LE 4. Honda Accord Hybrid 5. Toyota Corolla Hybrid 6. Kia Niro FE 7. Honda Sonata Hybrid 8. Mitsubishi Mirage 9. Lexus ES 300h 10. Honda CR-V FWD *Note: This list excludes PHEVs, which run partially on battery power and also have gas engines.* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "News", "item": "https://money.com/tag/news/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The ‘Greenest’ New Car You Can Buy Today Is Actually Not an EV" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/", "name": "The ‘Greenest’ New Car You Can Buy Today Is Actually Not an EV", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-03-01T21:02:15.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2025-04-15T22:16:45.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The ‘Greenest’ New Car You Can Buy Today Is Actually Not an EV", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/03/News-New-Green-Car-America.jpg", "width": 5415, "height": 3610, "caption": "News-New-Green-Car-America" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Grieve", "url": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/#author", "description": "Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter at Money who frequently writes about news and trends related to car buying, auto insurance and gas prices.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/peter.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "email": "peter.grieve@money.com", "jobTitle": "Lead News Reporter", "alumniOf": "University of Chicago, BA Political Science", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/pete_grieve", "https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138", "https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2024-03-01T21:02:15.000Z", "description": "The Toyota Prius Prime — a plug-in hybrid car, not an EV — is the \"greenest\" new car to buy, according to a new report.", "abstract": "The Toyota Prius Prime — a plug-in hybrid car, not an EV — is the \"greenest\" new car to buy, according to a new report.", "@id": "https://money.com/greenest-car-toyota-prius-prime/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2025-04-15T22:16:45.000Z", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 480, "keywords": [ "cars", "News" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal finance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Vehicle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Environment", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment" ] } ] } ] } ```