Volkswagen Passat won the award for the 2015 European Car of the Year after beating BMW 2-Series Active Tourer, Ford Mondeo and Renault Twingo. The stylish sedan, known for its wide range of features and top class engine, beat all its rivals quite comfortably. Though the car was tipped to win from the beginning, Mercedes-Benz C Class and Citroen C4 Cactus gave it some sort of competition before the final round. Experts have lauded the car for its driveability, ergonomic seating system and comfort features.
To put some numbers into perspective, Volkswagen Passat was awarded 340 points by judges as compared to 248 and 221 received by Citroen C4 Cactus and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, respectively (sold outside the United States). It is being said that technology, efficiency of design, broad range of configurations were the main reasons attributed to the victory scored by Volkswagen Passat. According to sources, judges lauded Passat’s adaptability to different road conditions and comfort in riding.
This is the second Volkswagen car in three years to win the award after the Golf won in 2013. Passat succeeded the Peugeot 308, which won the award in 2014. The jury for this award comprises journalists and people from the automobile industry belonging to 22 different nations from Europe. The eligibility criterion for this award involves the car to be a new car present in five or more European markets before the end of the year. Along with this, the car must have the potential to generate annual sales of at least 5000 units. These criteria rule out a large number of supercars that available in Europe.
The management of Volkswagen was delighted at this development and lauded the team for its work. Martin Winterkorn, Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Group, spoke about the award with great pride. “We are extremely proud of this accolade. In the new VW Passat, we have again succeeded in developing a car that sets the standards for its class in terms of technology and quality—this honour is a tremendous confirmation for the work of our engineers, designers and the entire team," he said.
