Green Car of the Year: Toyota Prius

Since 1997, the colour Green has had a new name and it's called the Prius and now it's the same in India as well. The Toyota Prius has barely had any competition internationally since its inception and it's the same here in India as well. While it may not be much of a looker, its reason for being and winning the 'Best Green Car of the Year' is the brilliant hybrid powerplant. The new 3rd generation Prius comes with a revamped version of Toyota's much touted "Hybrid Synergy Drive". The system basically involves a conventional 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine, one electric motor to move the wheels and another motor that takes care only of charging the car's batteries.

The switching and splitting of power between the petrol engine and the electric motor takes place electronically and reaches the wheels through a continuously variable automatic gearbox, which makes sure that the power delivery is smooth and consistent. The insides are typical Toyota offering oodles of practicality and space and a touch of style as well thanks to that very cool looking floating panel. Then there's the drive, considering the hybrid powerplant, the Prius is pretty nippy for a green car once the petrol motor kicks in. The CVT transmission is perfectly mated to the engine offering very goof drivability around town as well. More than decent performance coupled with some amazing fuel efficiency figures, cars simply cannot get any greener than this.