It’s now been 2 years in a row that Ford has driven off with the Green Car Journal ‘Green Car Vision’ award. Last year, Ford won the award for the Ford Focus Electric.

The award was presented at the Washington Auto Show on January 26th. Ford’s Sue Cischke was on hand to accept the award. Many consumers seem confused the the Ford C-max Energi won out over the Tesla Model S. Consumers who had voted on the Green Car Journal’s website had overwhelmingly picked the Model S to win the award.

The Green Car Journal selected a green vehicle that is not yet available on the market, but shows a possible way forward  to increase fuel efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions or in some other way to lower environmental impact. The 2010 Green Car Award was won by the Nissan Leaf. The 2009 award was given to the Chevy Volt.

The Ford C-max Energi is Ford’s first ever plug-in hybrid vehicle, and uses Ford’s powersplit hybrid technology and advanced lithium-ion batteries to deliver high fuel efficiency and over 500 miles of driving range. The Ford C-max Energi is designed to be a family friendly, multi-activity vehicle and has seating for 5 and versatile storage. The C-max Energi has the ability to run on purely electric power until the batteries are depleted, at which point the gasoline engine starts up and ‘extends’ the range of the vehicle for 450 more miles.

The Ford C-max Energi is designed from the ground up unlike the Ford Focus Electric that uses an existing vehicle (the Ford Focus) and just replaces the internal combustion parts with electric vehicle components.