For the first time since 2019, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada held its annual EcoRun, a driving event featuring a variety of eco-friendly vehicles on a three-day tour, this year in South-Central Ontario, and sponsored by the Canadian Fuels Association, Electric Mobility Canada, and FLO EV Charging.
These new vehicles are driven in real-world road conditions in order to fully test for fuel efficiency and the reduction of CO2 emissions. Unlike AJAC’s Car of the Year program, and any number of other similar programs, EcoRun is not a competition between the various cars. If anything, the vehicles’ efficiency ratings as generated by AJAC’s professional drivers are “competing” against the official Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) published ratings, which were handily beaten in every case. And then there is the friendly competition between the 15 drivers, to see who can score the most efficient run in a given car over the seven legs of the event. Your intrepid reporter managed to do that twice.
For the first time, all of the 15 vehicles entered were electrified, from Hybrids to pure EV’s.
The purpose of EcoRun is to help inform consumers of these alternative options. Naturally, the efficiency of the seven Hybrids was measured in litres per 100 km (and the few plug-in hybrids were run without having plugged them in, to level the playing field with the non-plug-in hybrids), while the eight pure electrics were measured in kWh per 100 km.
When all was said and done, the Kia EV6 GT-Line topped the pure EV’s with an average of 15.58 kWh per 100 km (with a best segment of 13.1 kWh), while the Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid led the gasoline engine-equipped hybrids with an outstanding 5.28L per 100 km (with a best segment of 4.4L).
In conjunction with the start of EcoRun on May 24, AJAC announced the winners of its annual “Green” awards; taking the Canadian Green Car of the Year was the Polestar 2, while the Volvo XC40 Recharge won the Canadian Green Utility Vehicle of the Year.
For more info on AJAC EcoRun, including videos and published articles, go to www.ajac.ca/EcoRun/.
