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| “The
leader in delivering the most balanced combination of power, torque
and low emissions”
Dan Vardie, Autoshow
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Replacing the Best Fuel Economy category
to reflect the advances in cleaner, more advanced powertrains,
the first Green Engine of the Year Award goes to Toyota and
its Prius. To qualify for this category, an engine must have
been designed with fuel economy as a priority and feature technology
to help cut emissions.
In a closely fought battle with BMW, the Japanese unit eventually
triumphed over the Germans by
a very small margin. The view of Greece’s Nikos Kounitis
was shared by many of the jurors: “It’s still the
greenest engine that the automotive industry can provide, and
still unbeatable by any other concept.”
The Prius is already very familiar to Awards judges –
this is the eighth trophy in five years that Toyota has picked
up for the powertrain, which
is testament to a concept that has spawned similar architectures
in a range of vehicles in both the Lexus and Toyota stables
around the world.
The petrol-electric combination found under the bonnet of the
Prius is made up of a 1.5-litre engine complete with 76bhp that
has been engineered to run on the Atkinson cycle, allowing both
the compression and the expansion strokes to be independently
set. A further 67bhp is provided between 1,200rpm and 1,540rpm
by an electric motor. Helping to maximise the fuel economy are
an electric-only mode that is operational at up to 48km/h as
well as regenerative braking, which helps the Prius to record
an efficiency rate of 32% compared with the 14% displayed by
regular IC-engined cars.
As they continue to grow in importance, the CO2 figures of the
Prius (104g/km) are nearly as impressive as the vehicle’s
ability
to meet the tough zero-emission standards of California.
A total of 49 of the 65 judges awarded points to the Prius,
including Horst Bauer of Austria’s Kurier who says, “The
Prius is still
the finest full hybrid concept that has made it to the customer.” |
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points |
| 1. Toyota Hybrid 1.5-litre (Prius) |
269 |
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| 2. BMW Diesel 2-litre (118d, 318d) (Stop-start) |
266 |
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| 3. Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger (VW
Golf, Touran,
Tiguan, Jetta (140/170bhp)) (small capacity, high output) |
150 |
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| 4. Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI (Audi A3, Seat
Leon, Altea,
VW Golf, Eos, Jetta, Passat (125bhp))
(small capacity, high output) |
140 |
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| 5. Fiat 1.4-litre Turbo (Bravo) (small capacity,
high output) |
108 |
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| 6. Honda Hybrid 1.3-litre IMA (Civic) |
101 |
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