Feature
Best Green Car: Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate
Find out why the Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate is the 2018 winner of our Green Car of the Year award.
This category is unique among our New Car Awards in that it’s influenced by our team of experts rather than by car buyers. Having driven and assessed pretty much every new model over the last few years, nobody is better placed for the job than our crack team.
Having set our definition of a green car as being anything with CO2 emissions of 50g/km or less, it turned out that 31 models were eligible for consideration. That meant electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe were in with a big shout, along with several plug-in hybrids like the Audi A3 e-Tron and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Meanwhile, models like the Hyundai Ioniq and BMW i3 had both those bases covered, and were also in with a big chance. The winner would be the car with the highest overall star rating in our expert reviews, meaning all those contenders finished behind our two runners up, the Volkswagen Golf GTE and Tesla Model S. Both of those finished behind our eventual winner, the Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate.
Having set our definition of a green car as being anything with CO2 emissions of 50g/km or less, it turned out that 31 models were eligible for consideration. That meant electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe were in with a big shout, along with several plug-in hybrids like the Audi A3 e-Tron and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Meanwhile, models like the Hyundai Ioniq and BMW i3 had both those bases covered, and were also in with a big chance. The winner would be the car with the highest overall star rating in our expert reviews, meaning all those contenders finished behind our two runners up, the Volkswagen Golf GTE and Tesla Model S. Both of those finished behind our eventual winner, the Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate.
Commenting on the Passat’s win in this category, Auto Trader’s Road Test Editor, Ivan Aistrop, said: “The Passat GTE is a really compelling solution to eco-friendly motoring. Its plug-in hybrid technology gives the car sensational efficiency figures, and when you need more than its 30-mile electric-only range, it still has you covered, with no range anxiety. Its estate car practicality also makes it a really good car for families, and the car’s quality and driving manners are also exceptional. It’s a terrific all-rounder.”
In fact, the GTE has proved so popular with buyers that Volkswagen can’t currently make them fast enough to satisfy demand, so ordering has had to be temporarily suspended in order to catch up. Typical isn’t it? The car is so good it’s been a victim of its own success. We are promised, however, that factory ordering for the car will be resumed in the coming months, and until then, there are plenty of nearly-new and used examples for sale on Auto Trader. Why not start browsing now?
In fact, the GTE has proved so popular with buyers that Volkswagen can’t currently make them fast enough to satisfy demand, so ordering has had to be temporarily suspended in order to catch up. Typical isn’t it? The car is so good it’s been a victim of its own success. We are promised, however, that factory ordering for the car will be resumed in the coming months, and until then, there are plenty of nearly-new and used examples for sale on Auto Trader. Why not start browsing now?