• Country: Luxembourg
  • Name: Gerhard Kuntschik, President of the Jury Country: Austria Capital: Vienna Population: 9,097,759 Auto Park: 240.000 new registrations (2021)
  • Name: Xavier Daffe Country: Belgium Capital: Bruxelles Population: 11,239,755 Auto Park: 5,9 millions
  • Name: Ilia Seliktar, Honorary President of the Jury and Co-Founder member of the board Country: Bulgaria Capital: Sofia Population: 6,856,602 Auto Park: 2.5 million, year import and registration of new cars - 35 000, second hand - 250 000. Name: Leonid Seliktar Country: Bulgaria Capital: Sofia Population: 6,856,602 Auto Park: 350,000 new vehicles.
  • Name: Ozren Adamović Country: Croatia Capital: Zagreb Population: 3,88 million Auto Park: 1,968,370
  • Name: Petros Soutzis, Co-founder & Vice President of the jury Country: Cyprus Capital: Nicosia Population: 1,141,166 Auto Park: 900,000
  • Name: Vladimir Rybecky Country: Czech Republic Capital: Prague Population: 10 515 669 Auto Park: 6 293 125 registered cars (average age 15,58), 610 405 registered light commercial vehicles, 186 905 registered trucks, 20 489 registered buses (end of the year 2021). Registrations in 2021: 206 876 new cars, 19 660 new LCVs, 8 679 new trucks, 1 367 buses. Car production in 2021: cars 1 105 223, trucks 1 262, buses 4 947.
  • Name: Mikkel Thomsager Country: Denmark Capital: Copenhagen Population: 5,700,000 Auto Park: 2,278,000
  • Country: Finland
  • Country: France
  • Name: Ioannis Stavropoulos Country: Greece Capital: Athens Population: 10,815,197 Auto Park: 5.200.000 cars, exclude taxi (is about 34.000) LCV and HCV
  • Name: Robert van Ginneken Country: Holland Capital: Amsterdam Population: 17,5 million Auto Park: 9 million of which 400.000 BEV and 145.000 PHEV
  • Name: Gábor Szécsényi Country: Hungary Capital: Budapesta Population: 9,617,512 Auto Park: 4,000,000
  • Name: Achim Stahn Country: Germany Capital: Berlin Population: 83,000,000 Auto Park: 47,700,000
  • Name: Dave Humphreys Country: Ireland Capital: Dublin Population: 6,378,000 Auto Park: 2,515,322
  • Name: Alessio Viola Country: Italy Capital: Rome Population: 60,795,612 Auto Park: 36,900,000
  • Name: Krumislav Barzov Country: Macedonia Capital: Skopje Population: 2,058,539 Auto Park: 400,000
  • Name: Anthony Alfred Darmanin Country: Malta Capital: Valletta Population: 425,000 Auto Park: 410,000 Registered vehicles, approx. 10,000 new vehicles registered each year
  • Name: David Andersen Country: Norway Capital: Oslo Population: 5,136,700 Auto Park: 3 milion
  • Name: Szczepan Mroczek Country: Poland Capital: Warsaw Population: 37,773,915 Auto Park: 25,000,000
  • Name: José Caetano Country: Portugal Capital: Lisbon Population: 10,347,892 Auto Park: 4,480,000
  • Name: Dan Vardie, Founder & Chairman Country: Romania Capital: Bucharest Population: 19,237,691 Auto Park: 8,9 millions
  • Name: Suspended – Petr Menshikh Country: Russia Capital: Moscow Population: 143,975,923
  • Name: Mladen Alvirović Country: Serbia Capital: Belgrad Population: 7,209,764 Auto Park: 2,200,000
  • Name: Rudolf Karpat, Co-founder Country: Slovakia Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,415,949 Auto Park: 2,725,538 Name: Michal Karpat Country: Slovakia Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,5 milion Auto Park: 3,436.018 cars and LCV registered , 2021 sales: 75.700 cars and LCV
  • Country: Slovenia
  • Name: Joan Dalmau Country: Spain Capital: Madrid Population: 46,786,605 Auto Park: 29.9 million vehicles
  • Name: Felix Björklund Country: Sweden Capital: Stockholm Population: 10,23 million Auto Park: 4,887,904
  • Name: Markus Rutishauser Country: Switzerland Capital: Bern Population: 8,306,200 Auto Park: 4,503,339
  • Name: Okan Altan Country: Turkey Capital: Ankara Population: 85 million Auto Park: 25,385,084 (End of 2022, February)
  • Name: Richard Aucock Country: United Kingdom Capital: London Population: 64,511,000 Auto Park: 37,000,000
  • Name: Oleg Vasylevskyi Country: Ukraine Capital: Kiev Population: 42,031,000 Auto Park: 10,950,000 cars and commercial vehicles

AUTOBEST European Jury votes Skoda as COMPANYBEST 2020 award winner12 / 11 / 2020

  • The AUTOBEST special ‘A STAR IS BORN’ prize goes to Citroen for its Ami EV urban mobility solution
  • Frank Stevenson becomes the new member of AUTOBEST’s ‘DESIGNBEST Hall of Fame’
  • The car industry first PiVi PRO system of Jaguar Land Rover is awarded with SMARTBEST 2020
  • Toyota wins the SAFETYBEST 2020 award
  • Toto Wolff, the leader of Mercedes AMG F1 team, is the SPORTBEST 2020 winner

The new Citroen C4, Honda Jazz, Peugeot 2008, Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia and Toyota Yaris – finalists for the ‘AUTOBEST 2021 award- participated in the Final Test in Austria. Following the long tradition pioneered by AUTOBEST two decades ago, this year, the proving ground of OAMTC Teesdorf was the main stage of extended testing of no less than 18 cars shipped in Austria from more European countries. Citroen e-C4 and Seat Leon plug-in hybrid count as two world premieres, as the AUTOBEST Jury members been the very first journalists to drive these novelties. The previous day, the jury members performed on-road drive tests in this superb area of Lower Austria. 

Taking into consideration the pandemic conditions, successfully organising the AUTOBEST Final Test is more like a miracle! It was the only European motoring media event in these difficult times. I personally want to thank all our Jury members who did their utmost to participate and also to the manufacturers in the Final, making all the efforts to be very well represented. We have excellent cooperation with the OEAMTC Fahrtechnik organisation who conceived the most demanding tests for Finalist models, yet. Finally, the organisation team deserves applause, starting with dr Gerhard Kuntschik, AUTOBEST Jury VicePresident. At AUTOBEST, we are familiar with “mission impossible”. This edition of Final Test was another one turned possible and highly regarded by all the stakeholders, journalists, car industry and consumers all around Europe, stated Dan Vardie, Founder & Chairman of AUTOBEST organisation.  

These cars will compete for the prize of ‘Best Buy Car of Europe in 2021’. The Jury of 31 members from 31 countries will make their final assessments and cast their votes in the upcoming weeks, with the winner announced in mid-December. 

With the occasion of Final Test event, the AUTOBEST Jury members voted several awards of this year, including one special prize: ‘A Star is Born’. 

The Jury votes for ‘A STAR IS BORN 2020 award in favour of Citroen Ami. Our unique award recognises revolutionary mobility solutions, new start-ups and brands with brilliant new approaches for our crowded modern mobility. This two-seat electric car has been primarily designed with modern-day urban mobility in mind. It is available to users through very affordable purchase and rental schemes, including non-traditional automotive retail outlets. The innovative use of a telephone that replaces many functions of the vehicle increases the appeal to younger users in many countries, introducing them to locally emission-free driving at an earlier age. Citroën Ami could be the ideal solution for individual passenger transport in European cities of the near future – with electric drive, easy charging and minimal space requirements on the road and for parking. Ami might be signalling a new path for Citroen, beyond classic cars, but in line with the brand DNA and the spirit of Andre Citroen. 

Skoda Auto is the winner of COMPANYBEST 2020 award. The growth of Skoda in new car registrations in recent years was as impressive as the gains in market shares in many markets. Technical innovations, attractive design, a customer-orientated widening of the model range, digitalisation of production “dProduction”, manufacturing of BEV and ICE cars on the same line and the continuing principle of “simply clever” ideas justify Skoda in being awarded the prestigious COMPANYBEST Award.  

The recipient of the DESIGNBEST 2020 award is Frank Stephenson. Our DESIGNBEST Hall of Fame recognises the true legends among car designers and the new inductee is a perfect match. He has played a role in many iconic cars which increase the heart rate in all of us including the Ford Escort RS Cosworth, BMW X5, Maserati MC12, Ferrari FXX, McLaren MP4-12C, but also the MINI Cooper and Fiat 500. All of these, and many others, carry Frank’s name. He looks to animals for inspiration and uses classical design methods from sketches through to computer graphics to clay models. In 2018 he established Frank Stephenson Design Consultancy where he continues to work on a variety of projects including those outside of the automotive sphere.

The SMARTBEST 2020 award goes to Jaguar Land Rover for its Pivi Pro infotainment system that is rolling out across its model range. It features a dual-sim design to enable more efficient over-the-air updates and data connectivity for the car. Initially implemented in astronautics and aviation, Jaguar Land Rover is the first car maker in the world to implement such dual-sim setup, giving numerous advantages in front of world leaders like Tesla, including better protection to cyberattacks. Not to mention the simplicity in operation as the driver can focus on driving only- access to 90 per cent of commonly used functions from the display with a maximum of two clicks. Furthermore, the hardware is among the most advanced and powerful to feature in a car, giving users the type of experience that is now expected in their highly-connected lives.

This year the SAFETYBEST 2020 award goes to Toyota for its development and fitment of the centre airbag in the new Yaris. It is a first in the European B segment. Including this vital piece of safety equipment in one of its smallest cars continues the democratisation of such technology and also played a crucial role in the Yaris scoring highly in the latest Euro NCAP test. AUTOBEST implemented this award two decades ago, been one the very first independent motoring media Juries around the world, valuing the crucial importance of safety for consumers. Toyota is brilliantly fulfilling our criteria to be this year winner. 

Torger Christian ‘Toto’ Wolff – winner of SPORTBEST 2020 award – took over the lead of Mercedes-Benz motorsports in 2013 and formed a team that remained unbeaten in championships for the years to follow. Under Wolff’s leadership, Mercedes AMG has enjoyed a series of championship wins unprecedented in Formula One. As of now, the Vienna-born former racer and businessman guided the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team to seven FIA World constructors championships and his drivers, Lewis Hamilton (6) and Nico Rosberg (1), to seven drivers championships. Wolff thus became the most successful team principal in Formula One of all time.

The other AUTOBEST Jury awards, MANBEST, ECOBEST and TECHNOBEST, will be voted and communicated at a later date. As a world premiere, the Jury will also launch a completely new award named `The Future is Here` This brand new prize is dedicated to a concept car brilliantly previewing the future of motoring in any possible aspect. It is the most complex to decide but in line with our Jury members expertise and motoring experience. 

AUTOBEST Jury members represent 31 European countries, making it the largest Independent Motoring Jury in the world by the number of represented countries. AUTOBEST Jury pays close attention to the efforts the automotive industry is making. Investments, new automotive job opportunities for people, funds for green cars and technologies, the support for different regions of Europe are all carefully checked and appreciated by the Jury. New in-car technologies and connectivity are also under the scrutiny of the Jury. In total, we dedicate eight awards to these achievements in the following categories; MANBEST, COMPANYBEST, ECOBEST, DESIGNBEST, TECHNOBEST, SAFETYBEST, SMARTBEST and SPORTBEST.

The 20th awards ceremony will take place next year at a date and location to be confirmed pending the various sanitary conditions in different countries of Europe. This year edition of AUTOBEST Awards Gala was in Mainz, Germany, on February 13th bringing together a record number of top executives from various companies and organisations.  

The AUTOBEST Awards Gala has evolved over the last 20 years from a distinguished dinner in a five-star location to a European Gala with world-class artistic content, gourmet menu and a unique Grand Finale for the AUTOBEST Award. More info on www.autobest.org.

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