Kia has become the first South Korean car company to scoop the European Car of the Year award, with victory for the pure electric EV6 in 2022.
The Kia pipped the new Renault Megane E-Tech electric and Hyundai Ioniq 5 in a closely-fought contest.
Kia ended up with 279 points, beating the Renault’s 265 points and the Hyundai’s 261 points.
The three cars were well clear of the other four finalists: the Cupra Born, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Peugeot 308 and Skoda Enyaq iV.
Six of the seven 2022 finalists were pure electric cars, with the seventh, the Peugeot 308, available as a plug-in hybrid.
The European Car of the Year prize has been running since 1964, with 61 jurors taking part in the 2022 competition.
However, due to the war in Ukraine, the Russian jurors were suspended from this year’s competition, while the Russian flag was removed from the presentation.
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