Volkswagen Joins Apple at Bottom of Environmental Barrel
That’s right, according to GreenerCars.com, Volkswagen produces the vehicle that is above ALL OTHERS the worst offender in terms of environmental impact: the diesel VW Touareg. How bad of an offender is the Touareg? Consider that the Hummer doesn’t even place a vehicle on the most offensive list.
Even more damning is the fact that Bentley places two vehicles in the “Top 12 Meanest Vehicles for the Environment” and Lamborghini claims a spot as well. Who owns Bentley and Lamborghini? That’s right - Volkswagen. Meaning that with four entries, VW owns fully 33% of the cars on this list.
So if you tool around in a VW/Audi product, you may consider contacting your dealer to suggest that they spread the word to their VW HQ that you will not consider maintaining your brand loyalty unless they green up their act and cease producing these gross polluters.
Like Apple, VW has built a brand reputation for being an ‘ethical’ company without doing anything to deserve the label. And, like Apple, their products are among the least ecologically responsible. Together, quite a testament to the manipulative powers of ad executives who dupe even the best and brightest into identifying with products that represent the polar opposite of their professed values.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about how the vehicles are ranked, the methodology is right here.
SONG O’ THE DAY is awarded to Elastica’s hot-rockin’ “Car Song”: .
[tags]volkswagen, apple, climate change, ethanol[/tags]
Tags: automotive, environment, news
[...] Original post by todb [...]
I have to disagree with this report. Volkswagen is one of the cleanest car companies in the world. If this report took a look at Volkswagen’s models in other parts of the world, it will see that Volkswagen has a model that does better in mileage than the Prius and that they have recently adopted Bluetec for their diesel engines.
Ah, but isn\’t that a bit like saying, \”Don\’t criticize Bob for raping women because Bob volunteers at the rape crisis center\”?
That is, one cannot disagree with the facts of the report simply because VW also produces clean burning engines for a different market. The fact is, VW produces the Number One most environmentally damaging vehicle on the market and four of the top twelve, irrespective of what else they do, no?
It hurts to see a company you \”love\” doing bad things. Yet, rather than defend a corporate entity that would provide to you no such defense were you ever to find yourself in, say, a legal or physical pinch, take your complaints directly to the corporation. See how they respond. In doing so, you should be able to discern whether or not they deserve your adulation.
Nobody will win anyone over like this. Anyone who knows a bit about cars knows that Porsche as a company is one of the greatest.
Not many people can afford Porsches, but those who do fund the engineering advancements, which end up in all our cars by licensing or competetiveness. Something like 85% of Porsche’s revenue comes from licensing their patents and technology to other car companies.
They are KEY in making the world a richer and better place to live. I don’t mean just for motor sport, but for safety, economy and everything else.
Why don’t you criticism GM or Ford? They continue to fight laws to raise fuel economy standards. They continue to increase the size of their vehicles. US makers are not only anti-green, they are financially stupid! The Japanese have better engineering, consider the environment, AND make cars people need.
Although I am open to information from all sources, the masses will think greenercars folks live in trees and expect us all to travel by sandals.
Dru -
If you look through the site, you’ll see my problems with the auto industry are certainly not confined to the number one ‘dirty’ maker - VW. It’s with the industry in general. And, you are right - we SHOULD walk a hell of a lot more. If one’s trip is a mile or less and one doesn’t need to carry more than twenty pounds, driving is absolutely unacceptable. We drive far, far, far too often when legs and bikes will do the trick.
Regarding Porsche “making the world a richer and better place to live,” I’m tempted to create a blog post out of your statement and watch the reactions. But, then again, at 14, I had a huge poster of a 959 on my wall, so. . .
Nice to hear from you, though. Just hope you think about the entirety of the auto-problem. In short, we need to reduce cars HEAVILY if we wish to survive.