While reviewing my Google Alerts this morning, and reading some of the recent happenings in the hybrid industry, I stumbled upon an article from MotorTrend that compared a hybrid SUV to three diesel models. And while my initial thoughts included how unfair it seemed for 3 diesels to gang up on just 1 green sport utility in any kind of test, I must admit I was proud of the outcome.

For those of you with 20-30 minutes of free time, who hang on every ounce of insight from St. Antoine and M’Trend’s other professional auto reviewers, you should definitely jump over to the full online version here. And for anyone who has less than 5 minutes before the boss passes your cubicle again - following is my very brief recap of Edward Loh’s original masterpiece.

While there are ten hybrid SUV’s on the market today, the reason only one was selected to go head to head with three clean turbodiesels is because these were all “luxury utes”. And while the green Caddy Escalade is luxurious and could have been substituted for one of the non-hybrids, it wouldn’t have been sporty enough to compete with these smaller lux models.

The snowy mountain competition included the following sport utility vehicles:

2009 BMW X5 xDrive 35d
2009 Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTEC
2009 Volkswagen Touareg TDI
2010 Lexus RX 450h

While lots of strengths and weaknesses were exposed for each truck, those that stood out most for me were:

1. Acceleration. The Lexus hybrid won honors here, needing only 6.4 seconds to own the 0-60 mph race. The Mercedes finished last, needing 8.1 ticks. In the racing world, those numbers are more than a few car lengths apart.

2. Price for Luxury. As tested, the Lexus ($50k) and Touareg ($52k) were thousands of dollars less than the X5 ($65k) and ML320 ($58k). Oddly, the cheaper rides were often praised for offering more features and a better finish.

3. Fuel Economy. I was expecting to see the Lexus hybrid way out in front here, and it likely would have been had the competition weirdly taken place in the city rather than the great outdoors. In reality, the hybrid’s 23 miles per gallon was only one better than the X5 - a notable runner-up. (The article discussed the fact that the price per gallon for unleaded versus diesel fuel can really vary nationwide. Where I live, it currently costs about 60 cents more per gallon for diesel which certainly widens the spread in these vehicles’ cost per mile.)

Spoiler Alert! In the end, MotorTrend gave the top prize to the VW Touareg - mainly due to its all around score. While it wasn’t the least expensive, fastest, or most fuel-efficient…it was one of the best in every test. The Lexus finished in 2nd place, mostly because it was the only vehicle of the bunch that was more car than truck. While I would have liked to have seen the hybrid take top honors, it is encouraging to know that the Touareg will soon be available in a hybrid model - and maybe then we’ll get a green vs. clean diesel rematch.!