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2005 Awards for Prius
Wired magazine has recognized Shigeyuke Hori, Chief Engineer for Prius, with a 2005 RAVE Award for "Putting Prius on the Fast Track." RAVE award winners are "mavericks and dreamers" who change the way people think about culture, business and science. Other winners include spacecraft pioneer Burt Rutan and Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles. In addition to championing Prius engineering, Hori was part of the team that set a hybrid car speed record of 130.8 mph in a lightly modified Prius at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah last August.
IntelliChoice magazine recognized Prius with a 2005 Best Overall Value of the Year award in the Best Car Value Under $23,000 category. The awards are given to vehicles with a cost of ownership that is significantly less than that of other peer models, and which provide a significant return on investment. IntelliChoice magazine's mission is to analyze the cost and value of automotive ownership. Check out other awards that Prius has received!
Thought-provoking articles in the press
The automotive and general press have written about Prius from technical, environmental and cultural perspectives - and every other imaginable angle. Here are some provocative quotes from 2005:
"In the marketplace, green technologies and industries are among the fastest growing and most innovative developments. The Toyota Prius has defied every prediction to become the must-have car. The organic food business doubles every time you blink. Green architecture is taking off. Renewable energy, emissions trading, environmentally-conscious investing: Many of the most exciting advances in environmental thinking are happening in the private sector." -- Chip Guilder quoted in the Boston Globe
"Plenty of technical wizardry went into developing the Prius, the popular gas-electric hybrid from Toyota Motor Corp," according to a senior engineer known throughout Toyota as the Father of the Hybrid. "We had hit a wall with electric vehicles (EVs)… Hybrids began where EVs ended." -- Business Week
"There's a very emotional component there," says Jon Lancaster, who owns Toyota and Lexus dealerships in Madison, Wisconsin, and sells 20 Priuses per month. "With growing concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil," he says, "it makes you feel like you can do something about it…" -- U.S. News and World Report
"We get an average of about 100 cars a day through the service department. Maybe three or four are Priuses, and they're usually just for an oil change." -- Los Angeles Times quote from a Toyota dealership service manager
[Mr. Roy Jefferson, a retired government accountant from Fargo, North Dakota] is an avowed Republican who doesn't at all mind drilling for more oil in Alaska's wildlife refuge. Still, three years ago he decided he wanted something different in a car. And he liked the idea of cutting pollution a bit -- and helping the U.S. rely less on foreign oil, too. So he bought a Toyota Prius. What does he think of hybrids? Are they the next big thing that will help America get free from imported oil? "I'm no scientist," he says. "But I wouldn't bet against it." -- Christian Science Monitor
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