One Of These Is The World Champion Of Cars
After Nissan’s Leaf drove away with the European Car Of The Year title and the Volt snagged the American Car Of The Year title, what else was there to win? The WCOTY, of course. The champion of champions, the World Car Of The Year. And the winner is …
It’s the all electric, battery-powered Nissan Leaf. It edged out the BMW 5-Series and the Audi A8. The range extended Volt wasn’t even in the running. The World Car of the Year competition was launched in 2004, with winners chosen by a panel of automotive journalists from Asia, Europe and North America.
That the American Volt didn’t stand a chance with a United Nations of a jury is understandable. But a battery-powered Leaf winning against such heavyweights like the BMW 5-series and Audi A8, that’s remarkable.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Why do you keep calling Volt "range extended" if its simply yet another hybrid ? Plugin hybrid, yes, but hybrid nonetheless.
It runs quite a bit further in pure EV mode before kicking into hybrid mode - hence range extended EV. Many users could do their daily commute in EV mode before kicking in the ICE.