Volvo S40 DRIVe Awarded Green Car of the Year
British automotive magazine / car buyer’s guide What Car? has awarded Volvo S40 1.6D DRIVe Green Car of the Year 2009 at the What Car? Green Car Awards, beating both BMW 118d and Renault Megane in the Small Family category as well as winners in other green categories such as Audi A8 (luxury car winner) and MINI Cooper S (sports car winner).
The main reason the new S40 DRIVe won is because of the new start/stop function (also available in the new C30 and V50 DRIVe) which reduces the CO2 emissions to 104 g/km; whenever the driver puts the gear lever into neutral and releases the clutch while standing still the engine switches off, patiently waiting to start up again whenever he/she presses the clutch again. These quick and smooth restarts (which doesn’t affect the audio system) are made possible by an additional, smaller battery supporting the larger battery with extra juice.
What Car?’s editor, Steve Fowler, said: “The S40 is a great example of a car maker cleverly refining existing technologies to make a seriously green car. It’s not just about a low CO2 figure, though: the S40 is great to drive, safe, has enough space for the family and, crucially, is cheap to run, too.”
Among the other winners we find:
- Lexus RX450h – Best green SUV
- Toyota Avensis 2.0 D-4D – Best green family car
- Mini Cooper S – Greenest sports car (2nd year in a row)
- BMW 318d – Best green executive car
- Fiat 500 Stop&Start – Best green supermini
- Audi A8 2.8 V6 – Greenest luxury car
- Vauxhall Ampera won the Technical Award, an electric car going on sale in 2012)
- Tesla won the Editor’s Award for the battery-powered Roadster
Link: WhatCar.com
Seems like diesel and electricity is the way to go, will be very(!) interesting to see how Volvo’s diesel/electricity hybrid is received in 2012.