UK’s favourite hybrid wins City Car of the Year award

Prius has gained an unlikely new admirer with Top Gear choosing the Toyota hybrid star as its City Car of the Year.

The Top Gear award is another sign of the broadening appeal of the latest generation of Toyota’s world-conquering hybrid. New Prius has been in very high demand in the UK, attracting more than 4,000 customer orders since going on sale in August.

Announced in the special awards issue magazine on now sale, Top Gear praised the technology of the new Prius and the “awesome numbers” of 72.4mpg and 89g/km for “a proper family five-door hatch”.

“You have to admire the Prius. It’s a testament to Toyota that it has refined this car over three generations to arrive at something quite ground-breaking,” said Conor McNicholas, BBC Top Gear Editor.

The Top Gear awards are selected by the TV, magazine and online teams, reflecting the most exciting and innovative cars to be launched in the last 12 months.

Thanks to its full hybrid technology, Prius is ideal for slow moving city traffic. It has the ability to run purely on electric power for certain distances, reducing both fuel consumption and tailpipe CO₂ emissions to zero. There is perhaps no better place to put that performance into practice than in the heart of London, where Prius remains exempt from the congestion charge.