Nissan LEAF wins Euro COTY The EV race seems to know no bounds at the moment, and anyone paying attention to the developments of electric vehicle technology would be enormously excited at the prospects that are emerging as we speak – simply keeping up is a challenge! But keeping up with, and perhaps superseding the competition, is a manufacturer who seemingly snuck in with not only a brilliant product, but a major international crown as well.
Value-for-money volume brand Nissan unveiled their not-by-mistake named “LEAF” concept car during 2008 to various markets, vowing to make it an all-electric, mass-market viable car available to the public in 2010. Fighting words indeed, but so was just about every other brand out there, with few actually laying their promises to the sword and actually putting them on sale at the time promised, a notion which personally I could never understand – if you fail to try, you may as well try to fail, I say. But “fail” is far from what the Leaf has done. In a historic moment for Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and zero emission vehicles in general, the 100% electric Nissan LEAF was awarded 2011 European Car of the Year. Coveting the title of the world’s first mass-marketed, affordable, zero-emission vehicle for the global market, LEAF beat 40 contenders to win European motoring’s most important accolade. This is the first time in the 47-year history of the annual competition that the award has gone to an electric vehicle. Nissan LEAF’s rivals included vehicles from brands such as Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Dacia, Ford, Opel/Vauxhall and Volvo. The jury included 57 leading motoring journalists from 23 European countries. “The jury acknowledged today that the Nissan LEAF is a breakthrough for electric cars. Nissan LEAF is the first EV that can match conventional cars in many respects,” said Håkan Matson, President of the Jury, Car of the Year.