For the first time in it’s 47 year history, the European award for car of the year will be announced at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show.

Hakan Matson, automotive editor of Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri and President of the jury said, “We are very pleased to have won the Geneva Motor Show as our partner. From this year on, the Car of the Year announcement will mark the ceremonial kick-off for the most important event in the European automotive sector and provide journalists as well as manufacturers with a new platform for exchange.”

This competition is regarded as the most prestigious automobile award that a car can win. The jury is made up of 59 renowned auto journalists from 23 different European countries and was brought to life originally by seven different European car magazines.

The nominees for 2012 Car of the Year are: Citroën DS 5, Fiat Panda, Ford Focus, Opel (Vauxhall) Ampera/Chevrolet Volt, Range Rover Evoque, Toyota Yaris and the Volkswagen Up!. Electric motors, fuel efficiency and smaller bodies seem to be the theme for this years nominees.

For more info, visit http://www.caroftheyear.org/

The Chevrolet Volt won the World Green Car of the Year award at the 2011 New York Auto Show, beating out the Nissan Leaf and BMW 320d for the title.

The World Car of the Year award is made up of 66 jurors from 25 countries, who are responsible for selecting the vehicles. This year, the Nissan Leaf ended up taking the honors for World Car of the Year, despite losing the “Green Car” title to the Chevrolet Volt. Other winners included the Ferrari 458 Italia for Performance Car and the Aston Martin Rapide took home top honors for Design. Check out AutoGuide‘s coverage of the New York Auto Show for more.

Chevrolet may be proud of its World Green Car of the Year award for the Volt, but it was Nissan who took even bigger honors taking home the World Car of the Year Award for 2011 for the Leaf electric car.

The Volt wasn’t even in the running for the more prestigious World Car title, however, competing instead against the Audi A8 and the BMW 5 Series – arguably the most ‘mainstream’ of the three nominees.

Nissan’s victory isn’t all that surprising after the Leaf was named the European Car of the Year for 2011 earlier this year.

The Leaf is widely touted as the first mass produced and mainstream electric vehicle, and priced at $32,780 it’s not unaffordable for normal consumers. Making it even more attainable is a $7,500 federal tax credit.

The Leaf can travel up to 100 miles on a single charge, and can be charged up to 80 percent in just 30 minutes using a special quick charger. Traditional charging takes about 8 hours. Power for the car comes from a lithium-ion battery pack with 80kW/280Nm, (107-hp and 207 ft-lbs of torque).

Other awards handed out included the Performance Car of the Year award, which went to the Ferrari 458 Italia over the Mercedes SLS and Porsche 911; while the World Car Design of the Year award went to the Aston Martin Rapide.

The World car of the Year Award is decided upon by a panel of 66 automotive journalists from 25 countries.

See AutoGuide’s complete 2011 New York Auto Show coverage here.

Drumroll, please…the three finalists for the overall 2011 World Car of the Year are the 2011 Audi A8, the BMW 5 Series and the Nissan Leaf.

The three performance car finalists chosen are the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the Porsche 911 Turbo. Competing for the spot of Green Car of the Year are the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition, and competing in the category of design are the Aston Martin Rapide, Alfa Romeo Giulietta and the Ferrari 458 Italia.

The three cars were whittled down from a list of 39, and announced at Geneva this week. The winners will be chosen on April 21st when the New York Auto Show rolls around. Stay tuned.

The new Volkswagen Golf has been named the World Car of the Year (WCOTY) by the International Motor Press Association. The group, comprised of journalists from twenty-five countries picked the new Golf over the other two finalists, the Ford Festiva and the Toyota iQ micro-car.

But the WCOTY awards are about more than just one car, as awards are also handed out in the design, performance and environmentally-friendly categories.

Taking the top spot for the Performance group was, not surprisingly, the Nissan GT-R, which beat out finalists like the Corvette ZR1 and Porsche 911 Carrera.

In the Green Car category, the award went to Honda for its FCX Clarity hydrogen-fuel cell car, which is capable of 72 mpg. Other finalists in that segment were the Mitsubishi iMieV, as well as the Toyota’s iQ.

The top cars in the design category are always amusing because of how odd they normally are… and this year was no exception. Nominated were (again) the Toyota iQ, the Citroen C5 Sedan and Tourer, the Jaguar XF (which we can almost understand) and the Fiat 500. And the 500 took the top spot for best design. Apparently “looking cool” wasn’t one of the qualifications.