Here is the best car of the year.

Just in time for the 21st century.

That was the slogan that Toyota (M.T.) – Get a free report used in 1997, when the automaker began selling what would become the industry’s best-selling hybrid vehicle in Japan.

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The world’s first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car won the Car of the Year award in Japan when it was introduced and a year later won the Car of the Year award from the Conference of Automotive Researchers and Journalists in Japan.

The new Prius has proven to be the best new car on the market for the first time in 20 years. The Toyota Prius is MotorTrend’s 2024 Car of the Year! #Toyota #Prius #COTY #MotorTrend @Toyota https://t.co/oIXxznGYVR

– motor trend (@MotorTrend) November 17, 2023

The Toyota Prius hybrid arrived worldwide in 2000 and made such an impression that MotorTrend named the Prius its 2004 Car of the Year.

“Not only is it the first hybrid that an enthusiast can truly enjoy, but it also offers a tantalizing preview of a future where extreme fuel efficiency, ultra-low emissions and amazing performance will happily coexist in a single package,” he said. publication said at that time.

A winner again

“The Prius is so brilliantly accessible, so undemanding and easy to drive, that an unsuspecting guest driver could easily be convinced that it’s just a conventional car with a push-button start,” MotorTrend said.

The world has changed since those early days as more drivers became environmentally conscious and switched to electric and hybrid vehicles.

Hybrids captured 3.2% of the light vehicle market in 2013 and 5.5% in 2021, according to the US Department of Transportation. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Fully electric vehicles accounted for 3.2% of the light vehicle market in 2021.

As of September 2022, the Prius was ranked the world’s best-selling hybrid car with 5 million units sold.

And now, 20 years later, the Toyota Prius is MotorTrend’s 2024 Car of the Year.

“It’s remarkable how much we wrote about that revolutionary 2004 Prius that still applies to its Car of the Year-winning successor two decades later,” said the publication wrote in Nov. 16.

The announcement was made during the Los Angeles International Auto Show. Among the finalists for the award was the Tesla. (TSLA) – Get a free report Model 3, the Lucid (LCID) – Get a free report The air and the BMW (BMWAA) – Get a free report M2.

“In a year with very stiff all-electric competition in the form of the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 and the revised Tesla Model 3 Highland, the hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Toyota stalwart proved to be a more attractive car by combining the traditional Prius brand . values (efficiency, safety and value) with new style and performance that are impossible to ignore,” said MotorTrend.

The Prius, MotorTrend said, “ushered in a new generation of vehicles that combined an electric motor with a high-efficiency motor to go further on gasoline.”

“The Prius managed to capture the hearts and minds of MotorTrend judges by offering an undeniably attractive and engaging car, while maintaining its hallmark characteristics of efficiency, safety and affordability,” said MotorTrend Group Editorial Chief Ed Loh. , in a declaration.

Toyota Vice President: “The Prius has become legendary”

“In an automotive landscape facing a shortage of affordable electric vehicle options and inadequate charging infrastructure in the U.S., Toyota made the Prius hybrid the right car for this moment and, in the process, rightfully earned the MotorTrend’s 2024 Car of the Year award,” said Loh.

David Christ, Toyota Division group vice president and general manager, said, “Prius has evolved from first to legendary.”

Earlier this year, Kelley Blue Book said that while electric vehicles may be shop-for-hybrids/”>dominating the headlinesits Brand Watch Report found that twice as many car buyers are considering purchasing a hybrid.

Four of the electrified models in the top 10 that were closely watched by most buyers were Toyota hybrids, Kelley Blue Book said, while the first electric vehicle, the Tesla Model Y, didn’t appear until eighth.

“And a much-publicized renewal of federal EV tax credits did almost nothing to change demand for EVs,” the research firm said.

Last year, Toyota North America vice president of sales Bob Carter told CNBC that the reason hybrids are so powerful is “because they meet the needs of so many customers.”

“Demand for hybrids has been strong,” he said. “We expect it to continue to grow as the entire industry transitions to electrification later this decade.”

Toyota has big plans for the Camry, its best-selling four-door sedan. The automaker said all Camrys for the 2025 model year will feature Toyota’s fifth-generation hybrid system.

This new hybrid configuration is lighter, more compact and more efficient than its previous systems, Toyota said.