The Volkswagen Golf Bluemotion has been named the Green Vehicle of the Year at the 2011 ACFO awards.
The Golf, a four-time ACFO Car of the Year winner was this year recognised for the excellent fuel economy of up to 74.3 mpg on a combined cycle, allowing its Bluemotion model to claim the green accolade.
Volkswagen’s lowest emission Golf variant, with a CO2 rating of just 99g/km, beat off competition from BMW 3 Series, Nissan Leaf, Volvo V50 DRIVe, Vauxhall EcoFlex range to be crowned the winner. The awards handed out by the Association of Car Fleet Operators (ACFO) in Birmingham last night, also saw the association give an Environmental Initiative of the Year award to BMW’s EfficientDynamics programme. The programme has been slowly rolled out across BMW’s range of cars, introducing technologies such as start/stop, energy recapturing, low roll resistance tyres and optimum gearshift indicators to reduce the fuel consumption rate of its cars.
Overall Ford dominated the fleet-focussed awards, with the blue oval brand winning four out of the seven categories, including Fleet Car of the Year award for the Focus and Small Van of the Year for the Ford Transit.
The Awards, now in their 28th year are voted online exclusively by the ACFO members which includes many big name fleet management firms as well as smaller, independent businesses which operate cars and vans as part of their commercial activities. .
ACFO chairman Julie Jenner said: “Fleet decision-makers are reliant on motor manufacturers to deliver vehicles that are cost effective to operate, safe, reliable and environmentally-friendly and supplier companies to provide a first class service.
“Operating successfully in partnership it means that through the availability of top quality vehicles and first rate suppliers, vehicle downtime can be kept to an absolute minimum and fleet managers can focus on the efficient and effective operation of their vehicles to support their businesses.”
