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2016 Green Truck of the Year, Commercial Green Car of the Year finalists

Not only are commercial-grade haulers getting more green love lately, they're getting more different kinds of green love. The 2016 Green Truck of the Year, the second time the award has been handed out, is being decided by judges from Green Car Journal and the San Antonio Auto & Truck Show. This year the award is joined by the new 2016 Commercial Green Car of the Year, which crowns one of the little vans increasingly used by small business as cargo and delivery vehicles. The Green Truck of the Year finalists are the Chevrolet Colorado Duramax (pictured), Ford F-150, GMC Canyon Duramax, Nissan Titan XD, and Toyota Tacoma. The first three of those were on last year's list, but since they are completely new or upgraded for 2016 - Ford with its all-aluminum body, the General Motors twins with the new diesel Duramax engine - they qualify for entry again. The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel won last year. The Commercial Green Car finalists are the Chevrolet City Express, Ford Transit Connect, Mercedes-Benz Metris, Nissan NV200, and Ram ProMaster City. You can read more details in the presser below, and the awards will be announced in San Antonio sometime during the show from November 19-22. San Antonio Auto & Truck Show Announces 2016 Green Truck of the Year and Commercial Green Car of the Year Finalists SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Car Journal and the San Antonio Auto & Truck Show have announced finalists for the 2016 Green Truck of the Year™ and 2016 Commercial Green Car of the Year™ awards. The Green Truck of the Year™ nominees are the Chevrolet Colorado Duramax, Ford F-150, GMC Canyon Duramax, Nissan Titan XD, and Toyota Tacoma. Vying for the all-new 2016 Commercial Green Car of the Year™ award are the Chevrolet City Express, Ford Transit Connect, Mercedes-Benz Metris, Nissan NV200, and Ram ProMaster City. "Over the past few decades, new car models have benefitted from design and technology improvements that have brought higher fuel efficiency and greater levels of environmental compatibility," said Green Car Journal and CarsOfChange.com Editor and Publisher Ron Cogan. "With models like these ten deserving finalists, we're witnessing the pickup and light commercial vehicle field enjoying the same attention." The new Commercial Green Car of the Year™ award is part of an expanded awards program presented at this year's 2015 San Antonio Auto & Truck Show.

2015 Ford Expedition stays the course, adds EcoBoost power

The era of the body-on-frame, fullsize SUV is rapidly vanishing in favor of smaller, unibody crossovers. However, Ford still sees life in the segment with the reveal of the updated 2015 Expedition, now available (solely) with the company's 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6. The new truck will make its public debut at the 2014 DFW Auto Show in Dallas on February 19.
The loss of the previous 5.4-liter V8 in favor of Ford's 3.5-liter, direct-injected, twin-turbocharged V6 engine might rankle some of the Expedition's fans, but Ford claims that the change gives the SUV better fuel economy, more power and increased low-end torque than before. Unfortunately, official engine specifications won't be released until later this year, but Ford says engine output will be similar to the 365 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque that this powerplant produces in other applications. The EcoBoost is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, and the SUV now uses electrically assisted power steering, for an even greater fuel economy advantage. Ford claims this also allows for better maneuverability at low speeds and better feel at high speeds.
Exterior styling is basically unchanged for 2015. The front end has the same three-bar chrome grille and headlight design, but the lower air dam gets added chrome and LED lamps. The rear gets more brightwork on the hatch, and there's a chrome-tipped exhaust pipe. As before, Ford is offering the Expedition in two wheelbase lengths - 119 inches and 131 inches. A new, optional, continuously controlled damping system alters suspension settings constantly based on 46 parameters and offers comfort, normal and sport modes (just like the Expedition's sister, the recently refreshed and decidedly less-attractive Lincoln Navigator).

Wrap up some fun with Ford's commercial vehicle configurator

Ford has combined multiple steps into one with its commercial vehicle configurator, which allows users to choose, design and place orders for the Transit, Transit Connect, E-Series vans and F-Series Super Duty trucks.
The most interesting part of the new configurator is a fairly robust design tool. Users are able to choose paint color and wrap the vehicle, and then create their own graphics. No materials are needed - Ford provides numerous background textures, text boxes, plenty of shapes and 20 categories of images including floral, construction, plumbing and skylines. Self-created designs or images can be uploaded to the system as well.
We played around with the design tool a bit and uploaded our own image to create the Autoblog Podcast Live van you see here. Feel free to check out the configurator and make your own design.