Winners Announced for AJAC's 2018 Canadian Green Car of the Year and 2018 Canadian Green Utility Vehicle of the Year

What is a Green Vehicle?
It is a vehicle which, for its size and purpose, provides the Canadian consumer with environmentally-friendly returns that compare favourably with other vehicles in its class.

2018 Canadian Green Car of the Year and 2018 Canadian Green Utility Vehicle of the Year Winners Announced at the Vancouver International Auto Show

Chevrolet Bolt EV and Kia Niro named as winners

VANCOUVER, March 28, 2018 /CNW/ - Today, at the Vancouver International Auto Show, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada(AJAC) announced that Chevrolet Bolt EV is the winner of the 2018 Canadian Green Car of the Year (CGCOTY) and Kia Niro is the winner of the 2018 Canadian Green Utility Vehicle of the Year (CGUVOTY).

AJAC has been evaluating vehicles for over thirty years, making AJAC journalists, through experience, the most trusted judges in the Green Vehicle spectrum in Canada.

"The Green Car awards have become only more relevant over the years," says AJAC President Mark Richardson. "It's more important than ever for AJAC's members to recognize the most environmentally-aware vehicles that are available to Canadian drivers, and to tell the buying public about them. These vehicles are the future of transportation and they contribute in their own way to the future of our planet."

Mark continues: "It's essential that Canadians make the right decisions when buying and driving cars and utility vehicles, and we're proud that our awards help them with this choice."   

Entries to the CGCOTY and CGUVOTY must meet the standard requirements for initial entry into the Canadian Car of the Year awards program, and additional criteria for fuel efficiency based on the entry's size, powertrain and purpose. In today's market, "green" cars come in many styles, sizes, price-points and vehicle categories.

Canadian Green Car and Green Utility Vehicle of the Year winners have been tested extensively by AJAC's Canadian auto experts from coast to coast. These AJAC journalism professionals score all eligible entries on parameters including recharge time, driving range, vehicle dynamics, market significance, and overall value. Each of the scores is then weighted for relevance to the vehicle and category in question. The winning score also represents how the vehicle stacks up to its market segment competition, whether green or otherwise.

All entries were tested throughout 2017, including back-to-back testing on roads across the country and in varying weather conditions. The CGCOTY and CGUVOTY entries are first scored under AJAC's standard Canadian Car of the Year program protocol, which considers subjective and objective data for scoring, and then further evaluated based on a specific set of "green" criteria in addition to their other scores.

The finalists leading up to the winners were:

2018 Canadian Green Car of the Year (CGCOTY):

Chevrolet Bolt EV
Hyundai IONIQ Electric
Volkswagen e-Golf

2018 Canadian Green Utility Vehicle of the Year (CGUVOTY).

Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
Kia Niro
Subaru Crosstrek

From March 28^th 2018, the overall award-winning vehicles in each Green category will be on display for the duration of the show.

http://ajac.ca/web/ccoty/pressroom.asp

ABOUT AJAC

The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) is an association of professional journalists, writers, photographers, and corporate members whose focus is the automobile and the Canadian automotive industry. Collectively, our primary objectives are to promote, encourage, support, and facilitate professionalism in Canadian automotive journalism and to ensure factual and ethical reporting about the automobile and automotive issues to Canadian consumers. This is achieved through the work of our members and AJAC's annual vehicle testing and evaluation events, the Canadian Car of the Year Awards (CCOTY), Canadian Green Car of the Year Awards, Innovation Awards, and EcoRun.

SOURCE Automobile Journalists Association of Canada