Charlottesville, Va. Makes Top Ten List of Green Car Cities

(WUSA) -- Charlottesville, Va. ranked as the sixth-most "green city" when it comes to interest in hybrid vehicles, according to Cars.com. The website ranked Eugene, Ore. as the most "green" city in its list which was set to be released May 9.

The list of the top ten U.S. cities is based on the interest in alternative fuel vehicles, not just actual purchases of hybrid cars. In a press release, Cars.com says it ranked the cities by evaluating the number of hybrid searches as a percentage of overall car searches in each market.

Charlottesville, Va. stands out because it is a college town, serving as home to the University of Virginia. "Aside from cities on the West Coast that one might guess would have a very strong interest in hybrid technologies," said Cars.com senior editor Joe Wisenfelder in a press release, "college towns rank high on the list for their interest." Gainesville, Fla., home to the University of Florida, and Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin, both cracked the top 15.

Charlottesville was the only east coast city, and the only city not in the Pacific Northwest, to make the top ten.

Here is Cars.com's list of the Top 10 Green Car Cities:

1. Eugene, Oregon
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo, California
4. Monterey/Salinas, California
5. San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, California.
6. Charlottesville, Virginia
7. Medford/Klamath Falls, Oregon
8. Chico/Redding, California
9. Juneau, Alaska
10. Seattle/Tacoma, Washington

Cars.com is owned by a group of media companies including Gannett, the parent company of 9NEWS NOW and wusa9.com