Britain's green top 10.

Byline: STEVE HUGHES

THE dramatic advances in cuttingedge technologies that enable new cars to achieve remarkable levels of economy and ultra-low emissions have been showcased in the latest green car awards.

A host of everyday cars are being hailed as future saviours of the planet for their impressive green credentials, which results in economy of more than 70mpg and emissions of less than 90g/km.

Among the affordable models to be singled out for particular praise are the new Toyota Prius, the Citroen C1, Ford Fiesta, Volvo S40 and the BMW 3 Series.

They were among ten exceptionally envir-onmentallyfriendly cars which were shortlisted for the WhatGreenCar Car of the Year 2009 Awards, with the Prius taking the top prize.

Not only do the latest generation of cars have a vastly-reduced impact on the environment whilst they are being used, but they are almost entirely recyclable, including even their batteries in the case of hybrids.

When the new Prius goes on sale from next month it will have an official economy figure of 72.4mpg and a CO2 rating of just 89g/km.

This 14% improvement in its green credentials over the current model is representative of the remarkable rate at which all new models are now cleaning up their act.

This includes not just city cars and hybrids, but prestige German models and even people-carriers and 4x4s.

The ten awards finalists were the Citroen C1 ev'ie electric, Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric, Toyota iQ, Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, Toyota Prius hybrid, Volvo S40/V50 DRIVe start-stop, Honda Insight hybrid, Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion, BMW 318d saloon and the Citroen C3 Picasso.

Dr Ben Lane, managing editor of WhatGreenCar says: "This year's judges were rightly impressed by the range of green car technologies employed by the ten cars short-listed.'' Among everyday models said to be typical of the new generation of green cars are the Ford Fiesta, Honda Insight and BMW 318d.

The Fiesta ECOnetic has a CO2 rating of just 98g/km, which the judges say makes it the greenest supermini in the UK.

The Honda Insight hybrid boasts a CO2 rating of 101g/km and is praised for bringing the first real competition to the Toyota Prius.

The BMW 318d saloon uses EfficientDynamics with regenerative braking and start-stop technology to help achieve a low CO2 figure of 123g/km, making it the greenest executive car in the UK.

Ten green award finalists . Citroen C1 ev'ie electric. Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric. Toyota iQ. Ford Fiesta ECOnetic. Toyota Prius hybrid . Volvo S40/V50 DRIVe start-stop. Honda Insight hybrid. Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion. BMW 318d saloon. Citroen C3 Picasso

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WINNER: The new Toyota Prius and (inset) its solar panel option, used to power in-car cooling when the engine is off