CotY winner to be announced in Geneva Show

The Car of the Year award will change its procedure for the announcement of the winner, that will be made each year on the eve of press day in Geneva Motor Show, starting with the 2012 edition. After almost half a century of publicizing the result on late November, the CotY Organizing Committee has reached an agreement with the Swiss annual show to disclose the winner in Palexpo each Monday prior to the first press day, at 15:00.

It will be a ‘live’ event. The winner will only be known in the moment of announcement, as the last votes will be opened -and the points added- on spot. As usual, the candidates will be selected among the cars put on sale in Europe during the previous calendar year with foreseeable yearly sales of at least 5,000 units. A short list of seven finalists will be issued on early January, following a simple vote by the 59 Jury members representing 23 European countries. In the final vote, each Jury member has to apportion 25 points among at least five cars, with a maximum of 10 points for any one of them. A statement of justification for the vote is also due.