First, this highly acclaimed sports utility vehicle (SUV) was named a finalist in the 2019 AutoTrader South African Car of the Year. And now the same vehicle has been named the supreme winner of the 2018 Women's World Car of the Year!
The Volvo was chosen from two rounds of voting. In alphabetical order, the six cars that made it through round one of the 2018 Women’s World Car of the Year were:
The women motoring writers then voted again with the Volvo XC40 emerging as a front-runner in what transpired to be an extremely tight vote between the Top 3 finalists, which were:
The Volvo XC40 is a compact luxury crossover SUV manufactured by Volvo Cars originally designed by Thomas Ingenlath and revealed in September 2017.
It was the first time a five-door SUV had been released by the Swedish company, Geely Sweden AB, which is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.
According to Charleen Clarke, the South African judge on the Women's World Car of the Year judging panel, the XC40 found favour with the judges for a variety of reasons.
"In summary the judging panel found the XC40 to be a balanced, well-rounded and stylish car, which is great to drive and well equipped. They gave its intuitive entertainment system the thumbs-up and also commented on its excellent chassis. Pricing is fair for the space and equipment on offer and the safety features of the XC40 are the icing on the cake," she explains.
The judging panel for the Women's World Car of the Year comprises 34 female motoring journalists from around the world.
"We don't just pick the best car for women. We pick what we believe is the best car in the world," explains Clarke.
The Women's World Car of the Year award and the 2019 AutoTrader SA Car of the Year finalist status, are not the first accolades for the XC40. Volvo's newest, smallest and least expensive SUV was also named the 2018 European Car of the Year at the Geneva Motor Show.
George Mienie, AutoTrader CEO, comments that it is impressive to see how the Volvo brand has evolved over the past eight years.
“Since Geely’s purchase of Volvo back in 2010, and under their stewardship, Volvo has produced some exceptional products," he notes.
Three of those – the XC90, XC60 and XC40 – are all SUVs. And they have all been successful.
"Volvo is also doing good job of moving to alternative forms of propulsion. In fact, all its car models launched after 2019 will be either fully electric or hybrids," Mienie reveals.
“The XC40 is going from strength to strength, both locally and abroad. We are proud to win this international accolade, and to be nominated locally for the SA Car of the Year competition. We are closing 2018 with a bang!” says Charmagne Mavudzi, head of marketing and communications, Volvo South Africa.
Now, the question on everyone's lips is this: can Volvo continue its path of success and add yet another award - 2019 AutoTrader South African Car of the Year - to its trophy cabinet? No one knows the answer to this question; the winner will only be announced next year. Perhaps the string of good fortune can be attributed to the name - ‘Geely’ after all is the Chinese word for 'lucky'.
