2012 European Car of the Year shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2012 European Car of the Year award has been announced today. There were 35 cars on the original list, but the first round of voting from the 59 jury members (including CAR Magazine’s editor Phil McNamara, and our European correspondent Georg Kacher) has whittled the list down to just seven. They are…

• Citroen DS5
• Fiat Panda
• Focus Focus
• Opel (Vauxhall) Ampera/Chevrolet Volt
• Range Rover Evoque
• Toyota Yaris
• Volkswagen Up

There will now be a second round of test drives, before the European Car of the Year jurors submit their scores and a winner is announced live at the Geneva motor show on 5 March 2012.

Nissan’s Leaf scooped the title of European Car of the Year in 2011, its score of 257 points narrowly awarding it the gong ahead of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta (248 points) and the Opel/Vauxhall Meriva (244 points).

By Ben Pulman