And the 2008 winner is...

WhatGreenCar?'s first Green Car of the Year Award 2008 goes to the Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi ECOnetic. The Focus has CO2 emissions of only 115g/km (65.6mpg on a combined test cycle) and, with a diesel particulate filter fitted as standard on the 110PS engine, a WGC? rating of only 33 - the lowest in its class and lower even than the bench-mark Prius hybrid (rated at 35).

The Ford Focus ECOnetic was chosen by an independent panel of six judges representing leading UK green transport and environmental organisations who agreed to select and judge the latest green cars on the UK market. From an initial list of 26 cars pre-selected using WhatGreenCar?'s own environmental ratings, the Focus was selected as the winner of the 2008 Award from a short-list of 10 cars, which also included the new NICE Mega City electric car, VW Polo BlueMotion, MINI Cooper D, Fiat Bravo ECO, VW Golf BlueMotion, Toyota Prius hybrid, and the BMW 118d and 318d saloons.

For more details about the models on the short-list, click here.

The 2008 Award judging panel

A panel representing some of the UK's leading green transport and environmental experts agreed to select and judge the greenest cars on the market. The judging was independent of the motor industry and aimed to provide consumers with an objective analysis of 2008's new cars to make it simpler for consumers to choose a green, low-cost car.

The Green Car of the Year 2008 judges were:

• Jessica Aldred, Deputy Editor, guardian.co.uk/environment
• Andrew Davis, Director, Environmental Transport Association
• Johnny Goldstone, Co-founder, Greentomatocars
• Nigel Underdown, Head of Advice for Transport, Energy Saving Trust
• Neil Wallis, Head of Communications, Low carbon Vehicle Partnership
• Dr Ben Lane, Managing Editor, WhatGreenCar.com

The 2008 Award overview

In drawing up this initial long-list, the following approach was adopted: All cars had to be commercially available to private and fleet consumers in the UK during 2008; after-market conversions were not eligible - all cars had to be be as sold by the OEM; flex-fuel cars were not eligible as the UK network of E85 fuelling stations numbers only 22; quadricycles were eligible for the Award; and cars from six vehicle classes formed the initial selection (city-cars, super-minis, small family, large family, MPV, executive).

To generate the short-list and decide on the Award winner, the following approach was adopted: Judges were invited to approve the long-list and select a short-list of 10 cars based on environmental and other factors; six selected short-listed cars were made available for a day's test-drives by the judges. The final round test drives and judging was held in London on 13th June; and judges were asked to agree by consensus (or majority) which car should be awarded the WhatGreenCar Car of the Year 2008.