Harald J. Wester, Chief Technolgy Officer Fiat Group, receives the award Euro Car Body 2007 from Mathias Woydt, vice president of the Automotive Circle International.

The new Fiat Group Automobiles Styling Center in Torino hosted the awards ceremony for the EuroCarBody 2007 prize, assigned to the Fiat 500 bodyshell by a forum of around 600 outstanding experts in car body development, manufacturing and assembly. The trophy, presented by Mathias Woydt, vice president of the event’s organizer Automotive Circle International, was received by the Fiat Group’s Chief Technical Officer, Harald J. Wester.

This is the first time the Fiat brand has won the EuroCarBody title, and only the second time it’s participated in the competition: an impressive achievement, and even more so in view of the fact that the award had never before been assigned to a subcompact in its entire eight-year history.

The EuroCarBody 2007 winner was announced last October in Bad Nauheim/Frankfurt by 600 specialists drawn from 15 international automakers. These experts assigned the accolade to the Fiat 500, putting the new addition to the Fiat family – the only subcompact in the running – ahead of a redoubtable lineup of 11 competitors from Japan, the United States, Europe and Russia.

The forum was particularly impressed by the innovative bodyshell’s contribution to winning a 5-star EuroNCAP rating (with a total score of 35 points) and high marks in insurance crash tests: a feat that puts the Fiat 500 at the top of its class in safety and is all the more remarkable considering that the car is a mere three and a half meters long.

The competition is open to all international automakers, who can enter their latest standard production vehicles built within 12 months of the official launch. The car bodies are judged on the basis of a variety of evaluation criteria, including use of innovative materials, innovative solutions for development, design and the manufacturing process, and values that are significant for the customer, such as safety, ergonomics, acoustic comfort and quality.