The Toyota Prius wins has won a prestigious prize in the field of environmentally-friendly motoring.
Impressing judges with its low-carbon credentials, the vehicle was awarded the WhatGreenCar Car of the Year 2009 prize after being chosen from a shortlist of ten finalists.
The green vehicles were tested by six of the UK's transport and environmental experts in order to ascertain which of the autos the consumer watchdog should recommend to
car insurance customers by awarding it the accolade.
Dr Ben Lane, the managing editor of WhatGreenCar, said that while the judges had been "rightly impressed" with the range of green car technologies presented by the ten shortlisted vehicles they were "unanimous in their acclaim" for the winning Prius.
"In addition to the new model's best-in-class cradle-to-crave environmental credentials, the panel particularly commented on the way the car seamlessly integrates green features as part of its design," he explained.
"If Apple made a car, it would probably be the third generation Prius."
The shortlisted vehicles Toyota's winner finished ahead of were the Citroen C1 ev'ie electric, Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric, Toyota iQ, Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, Volvo S40/V50 DRIVe, new Honda Insight hybrid, VW Passat BlueMotion 2, BMW 318d saloon and the Citroen C3 Picasso.
Meanwhile, a survey published this month has revealed that 60 per cent of motorists would consider buying a green car.
Synovate Motoresearch polled 13,500 city dwellers in 18 countries, including China and the US, and discovered that 40 per cent of those asked said that when money was not part of the equation they would prefer a green car to a petrol-powered motor.
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not those of the BGL Group
