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.
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).
See pics of all this year's seven Car of the Year finalists
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, “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 Giulietta, the best car from Alfa Romeo for many years, to be so well supported.”Read more on the COTY 2011 nominees
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Re: Nissan Leaf wins COTY 2011
120g/km??when charged only by coal yes...using a uk mixed grid which means the C02 even when charged during peak time would be no more than 87g/km but an average of 77g/km,or 47 overnight.
France 12g/km average
canada 33g/km average
usa 87g/km
A smart four two diesel emits 106g/km well to wheel, a seat leon eco diesel 123g/km, a mini diesel 124g/km...oh and there's the particulate matter thats worse than a petrol, so as a tax payer I'm paying towards health related problems
Re: Nissan Leaf wins COTY 2011
What cars, what batteries and a link please. Were they leafs? or Ford connects? Imievs? any of this new generation?
With massively reduced fleet costs and a detailed knowledge of delivery areas, i find it hard to believe that the new generation of vehicles would be thrown out.
This is just supposition and speculation based on? Ten years ago we had people saying the raw materials for Nimh batteries were running out and causing more harm to the environment. Again through that ten year period we moved on to Lithium chemistries. Again over the next ten years we'll see a move to better super capacitors, electronic managemnet systems, improved anode and cathode tech, lithium air and zinc air batteries amongst a plethora of other competing technologies.
As I stated the lithium can be recycled or batteries used for a supplemental home energy supply, storing renewable power and providing a fast-charging power source for EVs.
From what I've read, Bolivia amongst about 2-3 other south american countries have the largest reserves, chile apparently has been surveyed to have more reserves. Regardless we aren't running out yet
Again I'll say it one more time...Petroleum companies receive billions of pounds in subsidies and tax breaks still! There is no argument.
Re: Nissan Leaf wins COTY 2011
Um, where the **** have you got those figures from? All the stats I've seen so far suggest
EV: well-to-tank emissions 120 g/km; vehicle emissions 0 g/km: total 120
Diesel: well-to-tank emissions 25 g/km; vehicle emissions 120 g/km: total 145
Estimates of 350-650 g/km for the well-to-tank part of the ICE chain are way, way, WAY beyond any data I've found in research papers c.q. heard at conferences so far (and beleive me I've read/been to quite a few).