Every year, we will see the media and institutions in various regions to the current new car selection of one, two or three, the award winners and the previous ranking of the model represents the natural local relatively popular model, every year in Europe and the United States there will be a number of awards promulgated. In addition to the best models selected by magazines such as Top Gear, Auto Express, Auto Bild and other magazines in Europe every year, the European Car of the Year is a more authoritative, objective and comprehensive award.
The European Car of the Year was first established in 1964, and a series of automotive media magazines from different European countries voted for new cars that have been released in the past 12 months. This year's awards are made up of 59 members from 22 European countries, including Auto italy, AutoCar in the UK, Autopista in Spain, Autovisie in the Netherlands, L'Automobile Magazine in France, Stern in Germany and Vi Bilgare in Sweden. The model is not limited to European cars, but is sold in at least 5 European countries and has at least 5,000 sales. Based on design, comfort, safety, economy, handling, performance, functionality, environmental requirements, driver satisfaction, and price, the jury selected 7 shortlisted models, and each jury voted with 25 votes.
This year, the 2022 European Car of the Year award has just been unveiled in Switzerland. The seven candidate models that have been announced earlier are hyundai IONIQ 5, Skoda Enyaq, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Kia EV6, Cupra Born, Renault Megane e-Tech Electric, Peugeot 308. If it were not for the final Peugeot 308, the models selected this year would have been rounded up by new energy models, which can also be seen that Europeans have a fondness for pure electric or hybrid small cars. The final championship belongs to Kia EV6, which is also the first time kia has won the title of European car of the year, which is honestly surprising to many people.
Out of 1475 total votes, the Kia EV6 received 279 of those votes. Although it is not available for now, the EV6, which has been listed overseas, is expected to be officially introduced into domestic production and sales this year, and a more powerful EV6 GT version will be launched in the future. This EV6 is not only not too aggressive in design, but also has a battery life of more than 500km, a fastest 3.5 seconds of hundreds of years and a high utilization of internal space, and the product force is very balanced. Not only that, but the Kia EV6 also recently won TopGear's "Crossover of the Year" award, "What Car? The "Car of the Year" and "Electric SUV of the Year" double awards are also a blockbuster.
The second was Renault Megana e-Tech Electric, with 265 votes. Renault is not well known in China, but Megana's reputation in Europe is still very good, especially the name of Megana RS is not lost to Golf R in the front-drive steel cannon camp. However, the Megana e-Tech Electric only follows the name of Megana, using the Renault CMF dedicated electric platform to build, but also the renault Renaulution strategy after the comprehensive electrification transformation of the first car, the new digital concept deeply integrates Google's ecological content, and has a range of 300km and 470km.
Hyundai IONIQ 5 won 261 votes and finished third, but in fact it belongs to the same E-GMP platform of hyundai group as kia EV6, which is equivalent to the sister model of EV6. There are only 4 votes away from the second place, indicating that the two new cars of hyundai Group are indeed very pleasing to Europeans, and if the two cars are combined, it can be said that one-third of the votes were voted for them. IONIQ 5 we are relatively familiar with some, has completed the domestic debut last year, pixel wind design attracted a lot of attention, the official Chinese name set as Ani Kr, is expected to be listed this year.
The Peugeot 308, which finished fourth, got 191 votes, which was pulled a bit of a gap by the IONIQ 5. As the only fuel car, the redesigned third-generation Peugeot 308 has won the applause of many old car fans, but in fact, it also provides a plug-in PHEV version, and there will be pure electric models next year, so the so-called "persistence" of the fuel car camp is not so pure. However, the third-generation 308 is likely not to appear in China, and Dongfeng Peugeot is expected to launch a crossover model based on it this year.
The subsequent rankings were 185 votes for the Skoda Enyaq iV, for the Ford Mustang Mach-E with 150 votes, and for Cupra Born with 144 votes. The Ford Mustang Mach-E is probably the most familiar of these 7 cars, which have been listed in China and are priced at 265,000-37.99 million. While Europeans aren't too interested in the American Mustang, the Biggest mustang Mach-E of the cars has clearly impressed many with its new look and performance and Ford's reputation in Europe over the years. Cupra Born and Skoda Enyaq iV are the strangers to us, but you can simply think of them as sister models of the Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4, both born on the MEB platform, and the differentiated design has also brought them a good reputation.
In fact, it is not difficult for us to find from the standards formulated by the jury that they do not only evaluate the product strength of a car itself, whether the new technology is applied or not, but also use the price as an important indicator. Therefore, we can also see that the champions and even the shortlisted models in this competition are often more affordable models that the People of Europe can afford, so they are more meaningful to ordinary consumers. For example, last year's European car of the year was acquired by Toyota Yaris, and further ahead are the Peugeot 208, Jaguar I-Pace, Volvo XC40, Peugeot 3008, Opel Astra, Volkswagen Passat, Peugeot 308, Volkswagen Golf, Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen Polo and so on.
It is not difficult to see that almost all of them are cars in our concept, which is very different from the tastes of our domestic consumers. However, due to the environment and culture of the car, it is also a long-standing tradition for Europeans to like cars and station wagons every day. But more importantly, the number of candidates for new energy vehicles has increased significantly in this selection, occupying 6 of the 7 seats, and it should be noted that only Tesla Model 3 and Porsche Taycan are electric vehicles in the 2020 candidates, and only Volkswagen ID.3 in 2021, and none of them won the final annual car award.
But this does not mean that the European market has only just begun to lay out new energy models. In fact, under the strict emission regulations in Europe, the electrification transformation has already begun, and car companies such as Renault, Nissan, Peugeot, Hyundai and other car companies have been launching small electric vehicles or hybrid models in Europe, but few people in China have not introduced it.
The significance of this year's selection results is that the status of new energy models in the European market has really begun to change from "existence" to "recognition". In other words, from the perspective of European cars, the competitiveness of new energy models has been comparable to that of traditional fuel vehicles, and has entered the vision of mainstream consumers, at least in the eyes of the European media. Considering that the media's perspective will generally lead, this means that the sales of new energy vehicles in Europe will be further released in the future.