The final six cars in the running for the World Green Car Award have been named as the BMW 320d Efficient Dynamics, the Chevrolet Volt, the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, the Nissan LEAF and the smart electric drive.
Part of the World Car Awards established in 2004, the final winner will be announced at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday, April 21, 2011. Before that, the list of cars will be whittled down to a final three to be announced at the Geneva Motor Show on on Tuesday, March 1st, 2011.
The World Green Car award is presented by Bridgestone Corporation (Japan).
Ryoji Yamada, General Manager of Brand Management said, “We are very pleased and honored to sponsor the 2011 World Green Car award. The environment is everyone’s responsibility. And throughout our global family of companies, we take this responsibility very seriously. We believe it is our mission to serve society with superior quality… not just with eco-friendly products but also in the way we produce those products and the way in which we support our many communities with environmentally-friendly activities such as wildlife habitats and our Lake Biwa initiative in Japan”.
To be eligible for the 2011 World Green Car award, a vehicle had to be all-new, or substantially revised, in production and introduced for sale or lease to the public in quantities of at least 10 in at least one major market during the period beginning January 1, 2010 and ending May 30th, 2011. Tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption, and use of a major advanced power plant technology, aimed specifically at increasing the vehicle’s environmental responsibility, were all taken into consideration.
Due to the complexity of some of the ‘green’ technologies, three green experts were appointed by the World Car Awards Steering Committee to extensively review all documentation and specs associated with each candidate. They were asked to create a short-list of finalists for review by the sixty-six jurors in their second round of voting in February. Their ballots will be tabulated by the international accounting firm KPMG.
