Renault’s all-electric Scenic has been name Europe’s Car of the Year for 2024. At a ceremony at the Geneva Motor Show, the French car brand saw off stiff competition from BMW’s 5 Series.
The Scenic topped the voting of the jury, made up of 58 members representing 22 countries, including this reporter. Each jury member awards 25 points across the seven shortlisted finalists, chosen from a list of more than 50 new models to arrive on market this year.
With 329 votes, the Scenic won the award, ahead of BMW 5 Series with 308 points. Both were well ahead of the third-placed Peugeot 3008 with 197 and Kia’s EV9 with 190.
For 22 jurors, the Scenic topped their list of finalists.
This is the seventh time that Renault has won the Car of the Year trophy, which is in its 61st year.
Of the others, the Volvo EX30 scored 168, BYD Seal scored 131 and Toyota C-HR got 127 points.
Accepting the award, Gilles Le Borgne, Renault Group’s chief technology officer, said: “In 2020 we were deep in the red and a few weeks ago we gave the best financial results ever for Renault.” He attributed the success to the hard work of the team over the last few years, with promises of more success to come.
The jury awarded their scores after various test events during the year.
More than 50 new cars were tested last September during a week-long event in northern Denmark.
Known as the Tannis Test, it includes driving reviews on public roads plus various testing sessions on a closed airfield, where each new model is put through its paces.
Among the airfield tests, the cars undergo the famous Elk test, where they must complete a slalom course at speed, as if an elk suddenly appeared on the road and had to be avoided – rare for Irish motorists but more common for Nordic drivers. Modern cars are also fitted with collision prevention systems and pedestrian safety systems and these are tested during the airfield sessions as well.
Several other local test events follow, culminating in a two-day event in February for the seven shortlisted finalists at the Ceram proving track near Mortefontaine in France. Here the seven finalists – and various iterations of them – are tested across a range of road conditions, with engineers on hand to explain in detail the key traits of the cars, and answer questions from the jury.
With jury members required to explain their votes, Car magazine group editor Phil McNamara said of the Scenic: “There are a lot of midsize electric crossovers but the keenly-priced Scenic is one of the very best.” His UK jury colleague Andrew English of the Daily Telegraph said: “It’s the best normal-priced family car on sale, so it gets big points from me.”
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