Electric car wins Car of the Year
Nissan’s Leaf has become the first all-electric car to win the coveted Car of the Year title, after one of the most diverse voting processes in the award’s history. Nissan’s revolutionary Leaf, on sale in Europe from the beginning of next year and is scheduled to be built in Britain at Nissan’s Sunderland plant from 2013.
The Japanese hatchback scored 257 points, despite splitting opinion to the point where several jurors placed it in last place. Its total was nine points clear of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta (248 points) and 13 clear of the third-placed Vauxhall/Opel Meriva (244).
The remaining finalists were the Ford C-Max/Grand C-Max (224 points), the Citroën C3/DS3 (175), the Volvo S60 and V60 (145) and the Dacia Duster (132).
The awards are voted for by 59 jury members in 23 countries. Autocar’s Steve Cropley is one of the six British voters; he placed the Leaf at the top of his list.
“The Nissan Leaf was my own winner this year,” said Steve Cropley, Autocar, “So I’m delighted to see it win. It does more than any rival to “normalise” electric cars.
“I’m disappointed for the Dacia Duster, my number two, though. I know it does relatively little to further the art of the motor car, but it does offer a lot of style and utility for amazingly little money. It undercuts SUVs like the VW Tiguan and Ford Kuga by up to £10,000: an amazing achievement. Still, it’s good to see the Alfa Giulietta, the best car from them for many years, to be so well supported.”
The COTY jury is made up of 58 senior motoring journalists from 23 countries. Their objective is to choose the most outstanding new car to go on sale in the past 12 months. Jurors vote twice: first to select a short-list of seven from the new cars launched in Europe, then again to choose the winner.
Autocar is one of seven leading publications from around Europe which organise the COTY contest. Each publication takes it in turn to organise the vote, publicise and promote the contest and hold the prize-giving ceremony.
The jury is completely independent of the Organising Committee in matters connected with the award itself, the selection of eligible cars and the voting.
For more information, visit caroftheyear.org.