The Renault Austral has earned the title of Autobest - Best Buy Car of Europe 2023. A jury of 31 members, including Complete Car's Dave Humphreys, cast their votes following an intensive testing programme amongst the finalists, which included the Opel Astra, Peugeot 308, Toyota Aygo X, Dacia Jogger and Honda Civic.
It was a comfortable victory for the Renault Austral, securing a total of 14,937 points. The runner-up was the Opel Astra, with 13,986 points, while the Peugeot 308 ranked in third place, only 53 points behind.
Renault also picked up the Smartbest award for its integration of Android Automotive OS into its latest generation of cars. The 2023 award for safety went to Valeo for its lidar system, which is set to become an essential part of the roll-out of Level 3 assisted driving. Hyundai clinched the Ecobest 2023 award for the Ioniq 6, while Artur Martins, the Global Brand & CX Division, CBO and CXO of Kia received Autobest's top management award. Martins has played a key role in the transformation of Kia, initially developing the business in Europe before moving to the headquarters in South Korea, where he currently has a central role in the brand transition towards electrification.
Commenting on the announcement, Renault COO, Fabrice Cambolive, said: "All-New Austral wins the AUTOBEST 2023 award. This is a great pride and recognition for all the Renault teams who worked on the project (from design, engineering, the Palencia plant, sales and the network). The 31 members AUTOBEST Jury from 31 countries clearly understood that our new C-segment SUV is the perfect synthesis of the best of both worlds: an electric vehicle for city driving and an extremely efficient hybrid engine capable of covering long distances without recharging. With OpenR Link and Google Automotive Services, Austral also offers the best in services, connectivity and applications to provide an immersive and intuitive driving experience."
"Our winner of this year is representing the next level of the Renault brand. It is the best product yet of the French maker, with high-end materials, very high perceived quality, superb driving abilities, an impressive design and probably the best-connected technologies onboard today. It is benefiting from the E-Tech full hybrid engines, one of our previous winners of the Technobest award. Out of the six finalists of this edition, Austral managed to impress most of the members of the largest European independent motoring media Jury by the number of represented countries, with many placing it on top of their vote. With this victory, Renault is making a great comeback to the top of our competition, becoming the `Best Buy Car of Europe in 2023', said Autobest Founder and Chairman Dan Vardie.