Toyota Prius the Most popular New Car in California Based upon New Vehicle Registrations

Toyota’s Prius-badged vehicles proved to be the most popular new vehicles with California drivers during the 2012 calendar year. According to R.L Polk, the Prius family cars (Prius Liftback, Prius v, Prius Plug-in, and Prius c) accounted for 61,893 vehicles registered in California, making Prius the No. 1 vehicle badge sold in the state. This continues the trend shown by the state’s consumers who are adopting gasoline-electric hybrid technology and putting more of these vehicles on the road.

“Consumers are drawn to the Prius vehicles because of the brand’s focus on efficiency,” said Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager of Toyota Motor Sales, Inc. “All four distinct Prius models offer outstanding fuel economy.”

Recently, editors of Cleanmpg.com tested the Ford C-MAX and the Prius v on a 365-mile-highway route at a steady cruise-control moderated speed. In this evaluation, the Prius v averaged 40.8 mpg and actually bested its EPA highway rating by 1.9 percent. On the same roads and using the same testing criteria, Cleanmpg.com editors stated that the Ford C-MAX averaged 35.5 mpg, which is short of its stated EPA rating by 24.4 percent.