Green Car Of The Year Competition Features 5 Volvo Models

Since the new trend of the day is the 'Green game', safe boy Volvo is nominated with five models for the Green Car of the Year Award in 2009. Model range includes the C30, S40 and V50 DRIVe and the V70 2.5 FT and the S80 2.5 FT (bioethanol powered). The winner of the competition will be announced at the New York International Auto Show in April 2009.

Featuring the 22 car lineup, Volvo stands as the constructor with the highest number of candidates in the Green Car of the Year 2009 competition. It's worth noting that the Volvo C30 1.6D DRIVe, Volvo S40 1.6D DRIVe, Volvo V50 1.6D DRIVe, Volvo V70 2.5 FT Flexifuel and Volvo S80 2.5 FT Flexifuel will be seen at the competition.

German and Italian manufacturers have also entered the competition. Audi with the Q7 3.0 TDI, BMW 335d BluePerformance and Mercedes-Benz with the ML/R/GL 320 BlueTEC.

The five finalists in the Green Car of the Year competition will be announced next year in February, and the final three finalists will be announced later that year in March. The winner will be presented at the New York International Auto Show on April 9.

This important nomination does not change the fact, however, that Volvo are about to fire an additional 4,000 employees by December 31 as part of Volvo's cost reduction program. It seems that the decision was made due to the current economic crisis and very poor sales on most of the emerging markets. Hopefully, Volvo will not suffer the same fate as the U.S. Detroit manufacturers.