Today, Volvo has announced that at the Paris Motor Show they’ll present new economical versions of the C30, S40 and V50 models. Based on the Volvo C30 Efficiency concept that debuted at last year’s Frankfurt show, the new DRIVe diesel models achieve a fuel consumption of just 4.4 litres/100 km (53.4 US mpg) for the C30 and 4.5 litres/100 km (52.2 mpg) for the S40 and V50, while CO2 figures stand great, at 115 and 118 g/km.

“We wanted to demonstrate that low CO2 ratings are not solely the preserve of small diesel cars. By offering the Volvo V50 with emission levels below 120 g CO2/km, we are also making it possible for families and other customers who require extra space to make an active pro-environmental choice,” says Volvo Cars President and CEO Fredrik Arp.

To achieve these numbers, Volvo worked on the following parts of the cars: Read More: "Volvo to present fuel efficient diesel versions of the C30, S40 and V50 in Paris"

Today, the 2008 World Car of the Year awards winners were announced. The cars were nominated for four categories, Overall Car of the Year, World Design of the Year, World Performance Car and World Green Car and the winners were voted by 47 journalists from 24 countries throughout the world.

The winner of the Overall Car of the Year award was the Mazda2, followed by the new Ford Mondeo and the Mercedes Benz C Class. The Mazda2 also came in second at the World Design of the Year, where the winner was the Audi R8 and the third place went to the Volvo C30. The Audi R8 also won in the World Performance Car section, followed by the Audi S5 Coupe and the new BMW M3. The fourth award, for the World Green Car was won by the BMW 118d with Efficient Dynamics followed by the SmartForTwo cdi and the Volkswagen Passat 1.9 TDI BlueMotion.

So, we can say that the big winners were the Audi R8, with two awards, and the Mazda2, which won the main category and also came in second at another. The winners of the second and third place in each category are ok, though we don’t really dig the Volvo C30 as a great design.

Read More: "2008 World Car of the Year winners announced"