For the first time ever in its history the crown went to Volvo for their XC40
The 2018 Geneva Motor Show kicks off this week and ahead of its doors opening to the press and public for what is said to be one of the most important automotive events of the year, the 2018 European Car of the Year winner was revealed.
This year, for the first time ever in its history, the crown went to Volvo for their very stylish and compact XC40.
The Volvo XC40 was voted the 2018 European Car of the Year ahead of six other nominees which included the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Audi A8, BMW 5 Series, Citroen C3 Aircross, Kia Stinger and the Seat Ibiza.
In total, the British-designed XC40 received 325 votes, whilst the second place Seat Ibiza scored 242 votes followed by the BMW 5 Series in third place on 226 votes.
The European Car of the Year is one of the biggest awards ceremonies for car manufacturers, judged by 60 motoring journalists from 23 different countries, including the UK.
The points were handed out in similar style to the Eurovision song contest, with a big screen showing each of the representative’s from their country revealing its favourite car from the seven in contention.
It might be the first time ever that Volvo has walked away with the European Car of the Year award but it’s not the first trophy that the company has won this year.
In January, the XC40 won the 2018 What Car? of the Year award and just a couple of weeks ago the Volvo XC60 walked off with the UK Car of the Year award.
And it doesn’t stop there, as on the other side of the Atlantic their XC90 won North American Truck of the Year, whilst the XC60 claimed top spot for Utility of the Year at the same awards ceremony.
The president and CEO of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, said that winning the award was ‘perfect timing’ for the Swedish car maker’s, which has been owned by the Geely Holding Group, a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company since 2010.
The new Volvo XC40 is the companies first compact SUV and is already proving popular.
“Volvo now has three globally available SUVs in its range for the first time,” said Samuelsson, adding: “The XC40 will be a strong contributor to further growth, taking us into a new and fast-growing small SUV segment.”
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