Herbert Diess, Volkswagen Group CEO becomes the new member of the MANBEST Hall of Fame
TECHNOBEST 2020 is awarded to Renault E-Tech
ECOBEST 2020 award goes to the Honda e
The new SEAT LEON has been voted “AUTOBEST 2021”, the European accolade for The Best Buy Car of Europe in 2021. With a total of 12.685 points, the new LEON clinched first place by only 532 points over the new generation of Skoda Octavia In percentage, on the total number of allocated points in the Final 7, the difference represents only 0.69%! The new Peugeot 2008 came in third place with a total of 11636 points, only 517 points less than the runner-up of the AUTOBEST competition. Detailed results will be listed in the Final Ranking section on www.autobest.org.
„This year was exceptional in many respects. At AUTOBEST we welcomed 7 Finalists, a very rare situation occurred in our two decades history. This was a proof of the industry capability to deliver outstanding new models, with a clear focus on the electrification process. Consequently, we had a tough competition between Seat LEON and Skoda Octavia. Both new models coming from brands belonging to VW group are great cars, deserving to win. However, as we can have just one winner, the AUTOBEST Jury has voted and we have a winner: SEAT LEON. We congratulate all the people involved in this project, from engineers and designers to the people manufacturing LEON.” Stated Ilia Seliktar, President of the Jury.
„In such a complicated and diverse year, AUTOBEST proved its resilience, respecting all the promises made during the year. We followed our tradition and today we release the new „AUTOBEST Best Buy of Europe in 2021”! We are also delivering all our awards, as always. We managed the „mission impossible” of making the Final Test in Teesdorf, Austria. In doing so, we send our appreciation to the industry people who made huge efforts to continue to deliver great new cars and technologies. In addition, we pay respect to our car consumers, making the average European to understand better what are the best automotive technologies, companies, executives, designers, on board connected technologies, EV’s and ultimately the Best Buy car of our continent. Now it is time to celebrate. The 20-th Winner, SEAT LEON and the great people behind this successful car deserves our congratulations!” declared Dan Vardie, Founder & Chairman of AUTOBEST organization.
This year’s inductee to the MANBEST` Hall of Fame is Mr Herbert Diess, CEO of VW Group. Mr Diess was appointed CEO of Volkswagen Group during the biggest crisis of the company’s history, and is currently leading a transformation at Volkswagen. The automotive giant is working towards becoming a global leader in electric vehicles. The scale of what he’s achieved is enormous, and the many EVs – including the new affordable ones recently announced – to be launched by the Volkswagen Group in the coming years will enable millions of motorists make the switch from combustion engines to pure electric vehicles. In time, his achievements may be seen as era-defining – the era of everyday electric vehicles for all. In these difficult times, Mr. Diess has kept the Volkswagen Group on a solid path of earning money and selling cars at higher numbers. He is also conducting a profound restructuring of the Group with the aim to become a much more agile organisation, with proactive attitude able to react faster to the disruptive era of today.
AUTOBEST Jury members voted Renault E-TECH as the winner of the TECHNOBEST 2020 award. This ingenious hybrid innovation is genuine racetrack-to-road technology. Pushing boundaries in Formula One has seen Renault bring to market an effective, affordable solution that really delivers in everyday driving. Renault has shown its expertise in bridge technology towards an emission-reduced future by introducing three hybrid models in the small car/compact car segments in 2020 with three more models to follow in 2021 in hybrid or plug-in-hybrid versions. Thus, Renault offers a range of affordable low-emission technology for the average customers in most markets and shows the way to a smooth transition in individual mobility.
The Honda e is the winner of ECOBEST 2020 award. The clever Honda e is an ingenious pure electric vehicle perfectly optimised for eco-friendly city centre use. Featuring a design that cannot be mixed up with any other competitor, the Honda e is charismatic, luxurious and great fun to drive, proving how exciting the future of ECOBEST motoring will be. By introducing the Honda e, the Japanese giant not only demonstrated its to be ready for a city BEV but also to have the right sense for technical innovation. The replacement of door mirrors with cameras is another surprise in the small car segment. Honda took its time to launch the e, but the time spent was well used in research and development of an astonishing city BEV.
The COMPANYBEST, SAFETYBEST, DESIGNBEST, SMARTBEST and SPORTBEST awards have already been announced. It was also communicated the AUTOBEST Jury vote for CITROEN AMI 100% electric as the winner of the exceptional A Star is Born award (please see www.autobest.org).
The 20th AUTOBEST Awards Festivity will take place on a date and place to be announced in the coming months. At AUTOBEST, the safety of all our guests and Jury members is of paramount importance. Therefore, we will closely monitor the development of the pandemic situation in Europe. Following the tradition, the AUTOBEST International Jury will present the awards in a different country each year. The previous AUTOBEST Gala was held in Mainz, Germany .
The European AUTOBEST Jury thanks the readers from all over Europe for encouraging the project and the various PR departments responsible in the automotive industry for providing all the support in organising meetings and drive tests of the new products.
