(November 23, 2014) MUNICH — With the Green Car of the Year Award 2015, the BMW i3 has added a further trophy to an impressive raft of honors in its first year on the market. It was chosen for this award, presented by Green Car Journal at the Los Angeles Auto Show, as the first dedicated all-electric vehicle in the premium segment.

BMW says the latest honor, which adds to a long tally of awards the BMW i3 has picked up over the past months, is a further endorsement of this model’s unique sustainable mobility concept. More than 12,000 BMW i3s have been sold since November 2013.

Finalists for the award were the Audi A3 TDI, BMW i3, Chevrolet Impala Bi-Fuel, Honda Fit, and VW Golf.

The presence of more and more of these vehicles on the roads of cities all over the world is clear proof that it is now possible to successfully mate zero tailpipe emissions with premium-class driving pleasure, and that this groundbreaking combination is here to stay. One year after its launch, the BMW i3 is already the third best-selling all-electric automobile on the market.

Early adopters of the BMW i3 in Germany praise its sporty performance in particular. This is based on a 125 kW/170 hp electric motor, which offers highly responsive acceleration, and advanced chassis engineering. These drivers mainly use their BMW i3 for everyday urban driving and for commuting to work. For the most part they charge the lithium-ion battery overnight, at home.

These first customers’ main reasons for buying the first electric vehicle from the BMW Group are its integrated sustainable mobility concept and BMW’s acknowledged technological expertise. Stand-out features of the BMW i3 in the eyes of its first German customers are its carbon-fibre (CFRP) passenger cell, renewable interior materials, mature powertrain engineering, state-of-the-art connectivity, and styling which these customers perceive as “futuristic.”

Demand for this electric vehicle, which can optionally be supplied with a range extender, is outstripping expectations. Both in number and diversity, the string of awards the BMW i3 has picked up — starting before the market launch and continuing on an upward trend ever since —  is quite exceptional. In Germany, no sooner had pre-launch sales begun than the BMW i3 won the Green Steering Wheel 2013 award — one of the categories in the Golden Steering Wheel competition hosted by Auto Bild and Bild am Sonntag — and was voted best car in its class in auto, motor und sport’s Best Cars 2014 awards.

It also won two readers’ awards from Auto Zeitung magazine, plus the Auto Trophy 2013 and the Green Mobility Trophy 2014.

On the international stage, too, the successful market launch of the BMW i3 was accompanied by very positive ratings in opinion polls and independent expert reviews. Highlights to date include the UK Car of the Year Award, the Next Green Car Award, the Green Car of the Year Award, the Fleet Hero Award and a class win in the Sunday Times Top 100 Cars list (all of these in the UK), the Special Jury Award in the Swiss Car of the Year Award and a win in the French Trophées de l’Argus awards. In April 2014, a jury of motoring journalists from across the world named the BMW i3 World Green Car of the Year and World Car Design of the Year.

The Green Car Journal specializes in reporting on sustainable, efficiency-enhancing technologies and pioneering trends in the automotive industry and has been hosting the Green Car of the Year Award annually at the LA Auto Show since 2005.