Nissan Leaf, Chevy Silverado Nab “Green Car” Awards

The Nissan Leaf electric sedan and Chevrolet Silverado piston-powered pickup truck have won this year’s top “green” vehicle honors by Green Car Journal.

The updated Leaf was recognized as GCJ’s “Connected Green Car” for its improved driving range of 226 miles between charges, over-the-air software update capability and ProPilot Assist technologies.

The award is based on a vehicle’s environmental performance and level of connectivity. Other finalists were the Audi e-tron electric crossover, Subaru Crosstrek hybrid crossover, Tesla Model 3 sedan and Toyota RAV4 hybrid SUV.

GCJ’s “Green Car Technology” award recognizes the “most important” system that cuts carbon emissions, boosts efficiency or otherwise improves environmental performance. The Silverado won for its next-generation cylinder-deactivation system.

The technology allows the truck’s 2.7-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine to operate on a single cylinder under certain conditions.

Other finalists for this year’s tech award were the Hyundai Nexo’s fuel cell system, Nissan’s variable compression engine, Mitsubishi’s plug-in hybrid technology and the Ram 1500 pickup’s eTorque mild-hybrid system.