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These are KBB's Top Ten Green Cars for 2015

For the second straight year, the Top Ten Green Cars list from KBB (i.e. the acronym for Kelley Blue Book) should have been retitled KBBimmer. That's because the BMW i3 electric vehicle has topped KBB's list of greenest production vehicles for two years running. That means that having the lowest purchase price wasn't that big of a factor in determining the winner. KBB releases its list about this time of year every year in honor of Earth Day and this year not only praised the Bimmer for its performance and single-charge range, but also noted that its factory is powered by wind turbines, which gives the car and the company a few more treehugger points. Meanwhile, KBB didn't exactly surprise a ton of people by including models like the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in (with a caveat that the next-generation version will be coming out next year), Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S EVs and the Toyota Prius' four hybrid variants. Other somewhat lower-profile advanced-powertrain models to make the cut were the Honda Accord Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Volkswagen e-Golf and Ford C-Max Hybrid. Rounding out the list was the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, the only diesel that KBB recommended as a Top Ten pick. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2014 BMW i3: First Drive View 33 Photos News Source: KBBImage Credit: Drew Phillips Green BMW Electric top 10

Finalists for 2014 Green Car of the Year announced

The list of finalists for the 2014 Green Car of the Year has been announced, and in a genuinely bizarre twist, there's only one hybrid and no electric vehicles among the five contestants, despite the arrival of cars like the BMW i3 and Tesla Model S. Taking the place of the EVs are a pair of diesels, repping a technology that last won a Green Car of the Year award in 2009, when the Audi A3 TDI took the title. No diesel was in the running for last year's award.
Naturally, both of the diesel finalists are fielded by the Germans - with BMW's 328d and Audi's A6 TDI getting the nod. In the case of the 3 Series, BMW installed a 2.0-liter, turbodiesel, capable of delivering 180 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, while returning 45 miles per gallon on the highway. Audi and its larger, 3.0-liter, V6 turbodiesel produce quite a bit more grunt, with 240 hp and 428 lb-ft of grunt, but net a very impressive 38 mpg on the highway in the A6.
Finalists for this year's awards include two diesels, three gas-powered cars and a plug-in hybrid.

Rinspeed Budii Concept is a rolling smorgasbord of future tech [w/video]

There's a strange dichotomy going on inside the Rinspeed Budii Concept. Actually, there's a slew of seemingly mismatched ideas, but that seems par for the course when it comes to the mind of Frank Rinderknecht, no? For instance, there's a manual-wind Manero PowerReserve watch embedded in the cabin, which seems quaint, considering the high-tech nature of the car's design and intent. A high-resolution camera apparently "recognizes" when the watch is getting low on power, and a robotic arm "uses ingenious motions to wind the movement" of the watch. Seriously. The aforementioned robotic arm is a seven-axis unit that can "reach out" to the driver or passenger so that they can take over driving duties from the autonomous car. In this way, the occupants can choose to put their lives under the control of the "cognitive and intuitive autopilot" provided by a telescoping laser scanner and a high-res camera that map the car's surroundings, or to make their own "ethical" driving decisions. We kind of assume that refers to the current autonomous-driving question of the times: whether or not to save the lives inside the car our outside of it in case of emergency. If all of that sounds suitably high-tech, you should also know that the "feel-good lounge atmosphere" of the interior features removable plexiglass work surfaces inside, folding blinds for privacy that are custom printed with user-selectable designs, air outlets with ambient lighting, a "wellness shower in the headliner" (whatever that means) and a center console with – you guessed it – cup holders. The platform on which all of this is based is the all-electric BMW i3 hatchback. If all of that sounds intriguing, we suggest you read all about it in the press release below and take it all in via the included image galleries. Rinspeed "Budii" redefines human-machine interaction Reach out to robots The vision of autonomous driving will soon become reality and will fundamentally change the interaction of man and automobiles. While the research centers of the automotive industry are still feverishly working on the technical solutions, progressive thinkers such as the Swiss idea factory Rinspeed are already giving concrete thought to how automated private transport will transform the car and the man-machine system. Besides fundamental conceptual changes, this will also have to involve issues of ethics and society. In the past, the robots in the factories of this world merely assembled cars for people.