Jeep Avenger named as European Car of the Year

Jeep’s first electric car – the Avenger – has been crowned as the 2023 European Car of the Year.

Announced today at an event held at the Brussels Motor Show, it’s the first time a Jeep has even made a finalist in the awards, which are voted for by 57 motoring journalists from across 22 European countries.

The Avenger – a Jeep designed, engineered and manufactured in Europe – is a new model for the firm, and shares an electric powertrain with various other Stellantis products, albeit with a more rugged focus than sibling products from DS, Peugeot and Vauxhall.

With the Avenger receiving 328 points, it was the clear winner out of the seven finalists. In second place behind the Jeep was the Volkswagen ID.Buzz – a new electric MPV that sits on the firm’s bespoke EV platform, and acts as a modern interpretation of the brand’s classic Microbus. The ID.Buzz scored 241 points.

In third position was Nissan’s new electric Ariya SUV, which was handed 211 points, followed by the Kia Niro – which is offered with a choice of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric powertrains – that ended with 200 points.

Following these were the Renault Austral (163 points), Peugeot 408 (149 points) and the Subaru Solterra/Toyota bZ4X (133 points).

The voting works by each juror having 25 points to award, and they can’t give more than 10 points to any individual model, and have to split it across at least five cars.

Previous winners include the Kia EV6 in 2022, Toyota Yaris in 2020 and the Peugeot 208 in 2020.