The organization Kraftfahrerschutz e.V., which was founded in 1935, is one of the larger German automobile clubs with around 520,000 members. Every year since 1981, the awards committee has been judging technical developments that help car drivers to drive in a fuel-efficient and eco-friendly way. A precondition for the award is that these technologies must be used in practice and be available at reasonable prices.

Despite strong competition, the awards committee was unanimous in its choice of the plug-in hybrids from Volkswagen. Members of the awards committee were Professor Dieter Anselm (Doctor of Engineering; previously with the company Allianz Zentrum für Technik); Professor Dieter Klamann (previously Head of Development at Esso), Miriam Häfele (German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy); Dr Roland Fischer (Bavarian Environmental Agency); Bernhard Steinhauser (Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology); and the journalists Isabella Finsterwalder (“Die Automobilfrau”), Dr Gerold Lingnau (“Frankfurter Allgemeine” newspaper), Hanns-Peter von Thyssen (freelance trade journalist) and Thomas Rosenberger (“lastauto omnibus” magazine).

This was the eighth time the Volkswagen Group has won the tradition-rich KS Energy and Environment Prize for its brands.

The plug-in hybrid offers a combined system power of 204 PS and fuel consumption of 1.5 liters gasoline per 100 km (157 mpg US) and electrical consumption of 11.4 kWh per 100 km. This equates to CO₂ emissions of just 35 g/km. The hybrid accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.6 seconds and has a maximum torque of 350 N·m. The total driving range of the models is around 940 km (584 miles). They can be driven up to 50 km (31 miles) in all-electric mode.