2009 Toyota Prius

Many of us criticize hybrids for providing only marginal efficiency improvements for the cost premium over traditional models of the same vehicle, but in reality, that's not the point. There's one reason why the Prius is so much more successful than other hybrids, and that's because it looks like a hybrid. People don't want a Camry or a Civic with only tiny badges announcing to the world that they save gas; they want a four-wheeled rolling statement of frugality. With the FT-HS sports car concept at Detroit and the Hybrid X at Geneva in 2007, Toyota appears to have a strong grasp on that philosophy. The Hybrid X takes the design language of the Prius to a new extreme and is, without a doubt, a hybrid.