Drum roll for Volvo’s XC401
Just hours after the prestigious Oscars were handed out in Hollywood, one of the biggest awards ceremonies for car manufacturers took place 9650km away in Geneva — revealing the 2018 European Car of the Year.
For the first time in its history, the gong went to Volvo for its compact and classy XC40, which was voted ahead of six other nominees up for the prize by 60 motoring journalists from 23 countries.
The British-designed XC40 received 325 votes, out-scoring the 242 votes for runner-up the Seat Ibiza and third-placed BMW 5 Series, with 226 votes.
The announcement was made ahead of the motor show this week.
In a Eurovision-style tallying of points, a big screen cut to the representatives from each of the voting nations who revealed their favourites, with the six nominees made up by the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Audi A8, BMW 5 Series, Citroen C3 Aircross, Kia Stinger, Seat Ibiza and Volvo’s eventual winner.
Despite picking up the European Car of the Year award for the first time, this isn’t first trophy given to the Swedish brand this year.
The XC40 already pocketed the 2018 What Car? of the Year award in January, followed by the XC60 being named UK Car of the Year a matter of weeks later.
The largest of it’s SUV range — the XC90 — won North American Truck of the Year, while the XC60 also took the award for Utility of the Year at the same ceremony. Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, said winning the award was “perfect timing” for the Swedish car maker, owned by Chinese manufacturing group Geely.
Though the larger XC60 and XC90 have been going great guns for years, the compact SUV market is becoming one of the most fiercely fought sectors.
It will hope the double award for the XC40 will see it favoured over other small SUVs on the market.