City Emergency Braking on the up!

The Volkswagen up! is not even on UK roads yet, but it has just been awarded the title of What Car? Car of the Year 2012, as well as Best City Car, at the What Car? Awards.

Volkswagen had a successful night at the motor industry’s annual ‘Oscars’, which was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The Golf was voted the top Small Family Car category for the sixth time overall and fourth consecutive year, and Volkswagen also won the coveted Safety Award.

Commenting on the awards, What Car? editor-in-chief Chas Hallett said: ‘The Volkswagen up! sets new standards for a car at £10,000.  It’s a city car that can seat four adults, while offering new levels of refinement, quality and maturity at this price; none of its rivals feels quite so grown-up.  Buyers will be looking for even more for their money than ever in 2012, so the up! is a worthy winner of the What Car? Car of the Year.’

Meanwhile the Safety Award was in large part the result of the availability of Volkswagen’s new City Emergency Braking system on the up!.  The What Car? judges were impressed by this particular example of ‘big car’ technology filtering down to a smaller model and the system uses sensors to scan the space ahead. It then applies the brakes automatically if it detects that the car is about to hit an object in front. 

Director of Volkswagen UK, Chris Craft, said: ‘We are absolutely delighted with the awards we have received from What Car? this year.  The magazine continues to be one of the most thorough and important sources of new car buying information for UK customers and winning the overall Car of the Year accolade gives our new city car, the up!, the best introduction to the UK market that we could have hoped for”.

First models should arrive in UK showrooms in March and Volkswagen contract hire on the up! range is on the site now.

The full list of category winners at the What Car? Awards 2012 is below.

BMW has been awarded the title of Industry Supplier by the Energy Savings Trust, the UK’s leading organisation to set up to try and prevent climate change by helping everybody cut carbon dioxide emissions.

This is the second year running BMW has won the award in recognition of how it has helped businesses make their fleets more efficient, sustainable and reduce carbon emissions. The BMW 320d EfficientDynamics model which was recently launched emits only 109g/km CO2 which for a car of this size is pretty impressive.

BMW models sold in 2008 with EfficientDynamics technologies fitted have also been responsible for an approximate 54,000 tonne reduction in CO2 emissions compared to pre-EfficientDynamics cars. BMW contract hire prices are available on the whole range (off the site now) if you are looking for a low CO2 vehicle.

Volvo C30 BEV

Volvo is evaluating a new C30 BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) which unlike some other battery-powered cars, offers the same space and comfort as the standard car, including four seats. The new electric car emits zero carbon dioxide emissions, has a range of up to 93 miles and reaches 0-62mph in less than 11 seconds.

The car is solely powered by a Litium-ion battery, which can be charged from a regular household supply (230V) and takes eight hours to fully recharge. Volvo’s main focus over the mid-term will be plug-in hybrids (combustion engine and electric propulsion) but longer term as battery sizes reduce, fully-electric cars will be more practical to build and run. Volvo has also recently announced the launch of the Volvo C30 1.6D DRIVe which offers 99g/km and is available shortly.