TOYOTA PRIUS

1.74 million Prius cars have been sold worldwide since it was launched in Japan in 1997.
The official plural for Prius is not Prii or Priuses, but also Prius according to Toyota.
Celebrity fans include Gwyneth Paltrow, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney. Former Tory leader Michael Howard is also a driver.
As the Prius emits less than 100g per km of Co2, its owners do not have to pay road tax
Detractors nickname it the Toyota ‘Pious’. However, in 1999 Penthouse magazine voted it the best car to make love in due to its ‘free and open front seat area’.
Prius pronounced ‘Pree-us’ is a Latin form of the word ‘prior’. It was chosen as Toyota believes the car is the forerunner for the next generation of cars.
The Prius is the 144th most popular car in Britain. It is the most popular in Japan.
Around 170,000 Prius cars have been sold in Europe - one fifth in the UK.
If a Prius runs out of petrol, it can travel for a further 1.2 miles at 30mph on its electric engine alone.
Parts of the technology in the Prius engine were first developed in electric Japanese bullet trains.
The artificial sound will issue from a speaker under the bonnet, and rise and fall in pitch, depending on the speed of the car.
A spokesman for the Japanese carmaker compared it to the noise made by the vehicles in The Jetsons - the cartoon series about a space-age family living in the year 2062.
Hybrid cars such as the Prius operate on electric power at low speeds. At higher speeds, its petrol engine takes over.

Campaigners are concerned that the vehicles could prove a hazard for the blind and partially sighted and have campaigned for Toyota to introduce the noise generator.
A U.S. study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year found hybrids were twice as likely to be involved in an accident with pedestrians than conventional cars when reversing and parking.
Hybrid cars such as the Prius - which sells for between £19,985 and £22,960 in Britain - have found favour with celebrities keen to display their green credentials.
Toyota said it would initially sell its 'on-board approaching vehicle audible system' in Japan, where it is the country's best-selling car. But the company said it will also consider selling it elsewhere.
It will go on sale from August 30 at a price of 12,600 yen - around £97 - excluding tax and installation.
A Toyota spokesman in the UK said of the device: 'It's a humming sound, a bit like the space-age cars in The Jetsons.'
In Britain, the Department for Transport said it was studying whether electric vehicles required noise-makers to make them safer. 

The EU is also looking at whether to introduce regulations making them mandatory.
Toyota's rival Nissan has launched a hybrid car, the Leaf, already on sale in the U.S. and Japan, and to be sold in Europe from early next year.

Nissan said its cars will emit a 'turbine sound', apparently like an aeroplane taking off, from a speaker behind the left headlamp.
Nissan's device, which will be fitted as standard, will operate only when the car is driving at speeds of up to 19mph - after which electric and hybrid cars make enough noise - mainly from their tyres and wind resistance, to be clearly heard.
The Prius is the world's topselling hybrid model by far. Toyota sold 269,812 of them in the first half of this year, a 117 per cent rise on a year ago.
Some 1.74million have been sold worldwide since it was launched in Japan in 1997.