Toyota Prius Plug-in named 2012 Urban Green Car of the Year

The Urban Wheel Awards panel spent months to identify the most stylish, practical and attainable new vehicles for 2012 by evaluating dozens of cars and trucks in a variety of North American urban settings before selecting the three winners including the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in. Each of the three Urban Vehicles of The Year will be featured online at decisivemagazine.com.

The Hyundai Veloster was picked as the 2012 Urban Car of the Year with runners up including the Chevrolet Sonic and MINI Coupe. The Range Rover Evoque took Urban Truck of the Year edging out the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 and Mercedes-Benz M Class. The Toyota Prius Plug-in took Urban Green Vehicle of the Year title by outdistancing the Infiniti M35h and Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

“This is the Prius everyone has been waiting for,” said Lyndon Conrad Bell, editor-in-chief of Decisive magazine. “Endowing the world’s favorite hybrid with the ability to run purely on electric power for significant distances and recharge itself from an AC outlet remade and exceptional urban green car into the ideal urban green car.”

“We are pleased with the recognition of the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in as a well-designed, smart and attainable vehicle, especially in an urban environment,” said Jim Colon, vice president of Toyota product communications at Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. “We’re confident that the Prius Plug-in’s extended electric range, selectable EV mode, expected 87 MPGe and quick home charging are among the features that helped Toyota secure this distinction.”

The multicultural Urban Vehicles of the Year panel is comprised by Camilo Alfaro of Auto Proyecto, freelance reviewer Mary Chapman, Arv Voss of Auto Impressions, and Frank Washington of AboutThatCar.com.

The 16th Annual Urban Wheel Awards (UWA) will be held on January 8, 2012, in the MotorCity Casino Hotel's Sound Board Theater in Detroit, MI.

Notably, the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) executive committee has named the 16th Annual Urban Wheel Awards, hosted by the Emerging Diversity Education Fund (EDEF) and Decisive Media, the Official Multicultural Event of NAIAS.