Seven in hunt for Euro car award
Leading European automotive journalists have announced a widely varied line-up of finalists for the 2019 European Car of the Year award.
The world’s oldest annual new car award dates back to 1964 and in its current format the panel of 60 jurors select seven finalists for the final round of voting.
The winner gets announced at the Geneva Motor Show in March next year.
In alphabetic order the 2019 finalists are; the Alpine A 110 sports car, the new Citroen C5 Aircross SUV/crossover, the fourth generation Ford Focus, batteryelectric Jaguar i-Pace, the new Kia Ceed, Mercedes-Benz A-Class and the Peugeot 508.
Of the seven finalists the only car already on sale in New Zealand is the Mercedes-Benz A-Class in its A 200 and A 250 4Matic variants with additional models due in 2019.
The gen-four Ford Focus goes on sale in New Zealand from January and Jaguar NZ has recently announced an April 2019 on-sale date for the i-Pace.
Peugeot 508
THE WORLD’S OLDEST ANNUAL NEW CAR AWARD DATES BACK TO 1964 AND IN ITS CURRENT FORMAT THE PANEL OF 60 JURORS SELECT SEVEN FINALISTS FOR THE FINAL ROUND OF VOTING.
No plans have been confirmed for the New Zealand introduction of the Alpine brand or the A 110 sports car but Renault already sells the car in Australia.
The new Kia Ceed is a European market model but is closely related to the next generation Kia Cerato that will launch in New Zealand early next year.
Auto Distributors NZ, which imports the Peugeot and Citroen brands, says it is finalising plans for both vehicles with a Peugeot 508 launch scheduled for the second quarter of 2019 and the C5 Aircross
Citroen C5 Aircross Mercedes-Benz A Class