Toyota says don't call them Priuses -- call 'em the Prii

[Kal-El]

TOKYO -- The people have spoken, and it's official: All those Toyota hybrids rolling down the roads will henceforth be known as Prii -- not Priuses, Prien or Prium.

The newly christened plural form of the term Prius stems from a month-long voting campaign launched by Toyota Motor Sales to determine what we should call more than one of the cars.

The online poll aimed to settle one of the most vexing questions in the automotive lexicon, and the nomenclature assumes fresh urgency with the arrival of new Prius models such as the Prius v wagon, later this year, and the Prius Plug-in and the compact Prius c concept.
The top vote-getter was Prii, with 25 percent of the 1.8 million ballots cast.

"Prii becomes the word not only endorsed by the public who chose it, but also as the term recognized by Toyota," Toyota said in a statement today.
"As such, Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Prius) has updated its entry for the word 'Prius' to reflect this."
The term outscored four rivals, including Priuses, Prium and Prien -- as well as Prius, for both singular and plural. The dual-function "Prius" was the runner-up with 24 percent of the vote.

TORRANCE, Calif., February 20, 2011 –Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA, Inc. today announced that the general public has selected 'Prii' as the preferred plural term for Prius.

The Prius Goes Plural voting campaign was launched on January 10 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and challenged the public to help the automaker determine the plural nomenclature of Prius. The campaign coincided with the world premiere of the Toyota Prius family of vehicles. With 25 percent of the votes, Prii becomes the word not only endorsed by the public who chose it, but also as the term recognized by Toyota. As such, Dictionary.com has updated its entry for the word 'Prius' to reflect this.

Toyota unveiled the winning word at the Chicago Auto Show this morning. Jay Schwartz, head of content for Dictionary.com, was on hand to inform the public that, as the plural of Prius has now been determined, the term 'Prii' will be reflected in Dictionary.com.After the more than 1.8 million votes were cast during the course of the six-week campaign, Prii beat out its four competitors: Prius, Priuses, Prium and Prien. Prius came in at a close second with 24 percent of the votes. A video recap of the campaign and winning word celebration can be viewed at http://www.toyotapriusprojects.com/.

"Community has always been a big part of the Prius brand, so it was only fitting that we invite the online communities to participate in the plural discussion," said Colin Morisako, advertising manager for Toyota. "The people have spoken—Prii will be the accepted term used to describe multiple Prius vehicles going forward."

The plural of Prius has sparked debates since the launch of the vehicle 10 years ago. Now that the Prius family has grown, Toyota asked its customers and fans to help the company decide on a term to describe the plural of Prius vehicles, thus answering the decade-long question—what do you call more than one Prius? Online voting modules enabled the public to vote for their preferred plural of Prius as well as view real-time polling data. The campaign also featured an animated video, print ads and a web series hosted by James Lipton, host of Inside the Actors Studio and author of An Exaltation of Larks.

With the expansion of the Prius family to include the Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicle (PHV), Prius v and Prius c concept, Toyota hopes to further increase acceptance of the Prius brand by offering a wider selection of vehicles that each maintain Prius' core values of high fuel economy, low emissions, proven gas-electric hybrid technology and environmental stewardship. For more information on the Toyota Prius family of vehicles, visit http://www.toyota.com/upcoming-vehicles/prius-family/.