Kia’s electric crossover won the awards up against Renault Megane E-Tech and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Kia has taken the crown of European Car of They Year in a ceremony at the Palexpo centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Car of the Year is an independent organization supported by nine automotive publications from nine European countries, including 59 journalists across 22 countries. Normally, 61 votes are cast from 23 countries. However, this year Russian votes were suspended.

The third battery electric vehicle to win the award, Kia’s scored a total 270 points and beat cars such as the Renault Megane E-Tech (265 points) and Hyundai Ioniq 5 (261), the latter based on the same platform architecture and technology as the Kia,

The award ceremony was held at the centre that usual hold the Geneva Internationa Motor Show, but it was cancelled for the third consecutive year.

Behind the top three cars at the European Car of The Year awards were the Peugeot 308 (191), Skoda Enyaq (185) and Ford Mustang Mach-E (155) respectively – a very strong showing of electric cars. The EV6 is following the Nissan Leaf in 2011, and the Jaguar I-Pace 2019 as a winning electric vehicle.

1964 saw the creation of the Car of the Year award. The Rover 2000 was the winner. The Toyota Yaris won the top prize in 2018, followed by the Peugeot 208 in 2020. In 2019, the Jaguar I-Pace won the 2019 countback, having tied with the Alpine A110 for first place.