Green Car Journal has named the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid as a finalist for the 2011 Green Car of the Year award. Each year, five finalists are considered for the Green Car of the Year award, an honor that recognizes fuel-efficient vehicles and the environmental leadership they bring to the auto industry. The 2011 Green Car of the Year will be announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show during the shows second press day on Nov. 18.
What were witnessing today is an auto industry thats rising to the challenge of providing vehicles that meet increasingly stringent emissions and fuel economy goals, while listening to the voice of the customer and offering these attributes in vehicles they want to buy, said Green Car Journal editors. These nominees rise above the crowd as outstanding examples that forward environmental performance in meaningful and quantifiable ways.
Green Car Journal editors consider vehicles employing all fuels and technologies in the effort to raise the bar in environmental performance, including high efficiency gasoline internal combustion, advanced diesel, hybrids, electrics, and vehicles capable of running on alternative fuels.
Making the cut to become a finalist for the 2011 Green Car of the Year among many other noteworthy models is an honor, said Mike OBrien, vice president, Product and Corporate Planning, Hyundai Motor America. Hyundai is firmly committed to leading the auto industry in fuel efficiency and with the introduction of the Sonata Hybrid, we are offering consumers a fun-to-drive vehicle with a best-in-class highway fuel economy, a combination that is missing from hybrids in this vehicle category.
Finalists will be considered by the following jurors: Carl Pope, chairman of the Sierra Club; Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council; Jean-Michel Cousteau, president of Ocean Futures Society, Matt Petersen, president of Global Green USA; auto enthusiast and comedian Jay Leno, and automotive icon Carroll Shelby. For more information about the finalists, visit http://www.greencar.com.