Its drivers like to feel they are doing good for the planet when they get behind the wheel.
But Toyota Prius drivers may be a danger to humanity - as pedestrians are unable to hear the vehicles at low speed.
Now they are to be fitted with noise-making devices to to warn pedestrians they are approachin.

Demi Moore spotted in her black Toyota Prius. Many celebrities own one of the cars because of their green credentials
Toyota is to begin selling the sound generator for installation in its best-selling Prius car - which runs in near silence on electric power at low speeds.
The artificial sound will issue from a speaker mounted 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 space-age vehicles in The Jetsons - the cartoon series about a age family living in the year 2062.
Hybrid cars such as the Prius operate on electric power at low speeds. At higher speeds, their petrol engine takes over and they sound like a conventional car.
But campaigners have voiced concern that the vehicles could prove a hazard for the blind and partially sighted - and have campaigned for Toyota to introduce the mechanism.
A US study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year found hybrids were twice as likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash than conventional cars when reversing and parking.
Hybrid cars such as the Prius, which sell for between £17,000 and £27,000 in Britain, have found favoured with Hollywood A-list celebrities keen to display their green credentials such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz.
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 is studying whether electric vehicles require noise-makers to make the safer, and the EU as a whole is also looking at whether to introduce regulations making them mandatory.
Toyota’s rival Nissan, has launched a rival hybrid car, the Leaf, already on sale in the US and Japan, and to be sold in Europe early next year.
Nissan said its cars will emit a ‘turbine sound’, sounding 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 top-selling hybrid model by far. Toyota sold 269,812 units of the car in the first half of this year
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