THE Volvo XC40 has been named European Car of the Year for 2018 - the third major honour for the Swedish car maker in as many weeks.

Already the XC40 has been voted Car of the Year in the What Car? Awards and last week the Volvo XC60 was named British Car of the Year.

The XC40 status as Europe's best was announced in Switzerland on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show.

It is the first win of this prestigious award for Volvo and Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars said: "Volvo now has three globally available SUVs in its range for the first time. The XC40 will be a strong contributor to further growth, taking us into a new and fast-growing small SUV segment."

The XC40, which is priced from £27,905, was launched only a few months ago as Volvo's contender in the booming medium sized SUV market.

In the European awards contest it was pitched against the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, the Audi A8, BMW 5 series, Citroen C3 Aircross, Kia Stinger and the, Seat Ibiza.