This prestigious prize, which has been awarded for more than 50 years by a jury composed of 58 European journalists, will be presented for the fourth time at the Geneva International Motor Show on the day before the Press Days.
The seven finalists were announced in December 2014 and are now going through their final tests. The Motor Show organisers will be enhancing the importance of this ceremony through an all new presentation setting which will better meet the needs of the media representatives in attendance. The live broadcast of the ceremony on the websites of the Motor Show and the Car of the Year organisation will enable the general public to participate in this event which is normally reserved for journalists and the exhibitors at the Geneva International Motor Show
The awarding of the Car of the Year 2015 will take place, as with the previous three years, in the Lobby of Palexpo’s Congress Centre. But this year the presentation setting will be totally revised. It will allow the winning car to be driven onto the stage for presentation. A large 2-section media screen, surrounding black curtains and a wall with all the participating logos will be used to generate a more dramatic atmosphere for announcing the results of this important election. The final vote and the awarding of the Car of the Year will take place on Monday, March 2nd, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. The ceremony will be reserved for the journalists accredited by the Motor Show and the exhibitors presenting at the Show. However, the ceremony will be broadcasted live over the official sites of the Motor Show (www.salon-auto.ch) and the Car of the Year organization (www.caroftheyear.org) which will enable the general public to take part and find out who the winner is at the same time as the official announcement. The jury for the Car of the Year is composed of 58 journalists from 22 countries in Europe. They chose their favourites last December from among the 31 models deemed eligible by meeting the criteria of having sold at least 5,000 examples per year. 22 cars participated in this first round. As is the custom, the final selection will be made from seven models which are very different from each other but all are attractive in terms of innovations, quality, price/performance ratio and design:
• BMW 2 Series Active Tourer
• Citroen C4 Cactus
• Ford Mondeo
• Mercedes-Benz C Class
• Nissan Qashqai
• Renault Twingo
• Volkswagen Passat
Switzerland will be represented on the jury by Urs Bärtschi, owner of Bärtschi Media AG, and agency specialising in the automobile world and working with such publications as Blick, Sonntagsblick and Schweizer Illustrierte, and by Peter Ruch, an independent journalist and editor of the online magazine Radical Mag and a regular contributor to Automobil Revue. The Car of the Year organising committee consists of seven European magazines, and this year is presided over by Mrs. Wibke Bruns, representing Gruner + Jahr. The group publishes the German magazine «Stern», a member of this organisation for nearly 50 years. Hakan Matson, President of the jury and automobile journalist for the Swedish economic daily «Dagans Industry» will conduct the awards ceremony and will be presenting the prize to the happy winner