Year after year, the Geneva motor show has been the car industry’s favourite and you don’t need to look hard to see why. Compared with leviathans such as the Frankfurt show, it’s small, manageable and, above all, held on neutral ground. It is here car makers feel comfortable enough to show off their most interesting wares, confident they won’t get swamped by indigenous product. There are no rules at Geneva, no theme to each show and until the doors open each year, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get.

This year’s show has revealed the motor industry at its imaginative best as it struggles to deal with the twin imperatives of cutting emissions and consumption while still providing cars that are intrinsically desirable. To that end, the show packed in a vast span of innovative cars from small, light and efficient city vehicles to massively powerful supercars all under the same roof, as the following selection makes clear.

1 Ford Fiesta and Kuga

For your average European, the Fiesta was the most important car of the show, which was shown here for the first time in both three and five-door form. Differing in no great way from the stunning Verve concept shown in Detroit in January, the Fiesta is perhaps the best work yet of Martin Smith, Ford’s British design chief. Sales don’t start until the autumn and between now and then, the similarly smart Kuga crossover SUV will be taking on the likes of Toyota’s RAV4 and Nissan’s impressive new X-Trail. Based on the new and class-leading Focus, things will have gone badly wrong if the Kuga doesn’t prove to be the car to beat in its class.

2 Toyota iQ

Some might say that in the Aygo, Toyota had an ideal city car, but not Toyota. This new iQ, due to go on sale in the UK early next year, makes the Aygo look large. The iQ is less than 10ft long and, and unlike the diminutive Smart Fortwo, has four seats. Okay, three and a child seat.

This apparent miracle of packaging has been achieved through design innovations, from its ultra-thin seats, past an almost flat fuel tank slung under the car to an asymmetric seating layout where the front passenger sits much further forward than the driver, allowing space for a full-sized adult behind.

The iQ will come to market with one diesel and two petrol engines, at least one of which will boast sub 100g/km CO2 emissions, putting it in the lowest road tax band (that is, zero rated) and making it congestion-charge exempt.

3 Volkswagen Scirocco and Golf Hybrid

The return of the Scirocco name to a Volkswagen coupé for the first time in 16 years was one of the worst-kept but most welcome secrets of the show. And it did not disappoint, with a shape that belies its relatively humble Golf-based underpinnings and follows closely the style of the Iroc concept car first shown in 2006.

It goes on sale this autumn, powered at first only by a 2 litre 200bhp turbo motor with a likely UK price of about £20,000. More powerful and diesel options are a certainty for the future.

The company also took the opportunity to show an extraordinary diesel-electric Golf hybrid that even VW said was likely to go into production.

By using a 75bhp diesel engine with a 27bhp electric motor that obviates the need for a starter motor or alternator, VW’s engineers have produced a full-sized family car capable of , 83mpg and an astonishing 89g/km of CO2 beating by 10g/km the Polo BlueMotion, the only car on sale that has CO2 emissions in the double digits.

4 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

Lamborghini’s gorgeous, capable junior supercar takes another performance leap, thanks not just to an extra 40bhp from its 5.2 litre V10 motor, but an overall reduction in weight of 20kg. The resulting car will cannon to 62mph in 3.7sec, hit 125mph from rest in 11.8sec and not stop accelerating until it’s doing 202mph.

Despite this, Lamborghini claims that the adoption of a new direct-injection system has improved economy and emissions by 18%.

Additionally the bodywork has been heavily revised with a restyled rear and a new front spoiler arrangement reminiscent of the look of the Reventón supercar.

5 Jaguar XKRS

After the successful launch of its XF saloon, Jaguar is turning the attention back to its popular XK coupé with this new XKRS version. Although power remains the same at 420bhp, top speed has been raised 19mph by the simple expedient of reprogramming the electronic speed limiter to cut in at 174mph. To cope with this and sharpen up the car’s responses, bespoke suspension and an uprated braking system are fitted together with aerodynamic modifications to the bodywork.

However, the XKRS is not the much-rumoured super XK, which is predicted to have at least 500bhp but will not surface until towards the end of the year. Instead it is a limited-edition model, all 200 of which will be painted black with just 50 of them being sold in the UK, priced at £79,995, almost £10,000 over the standard XKR.

6 Morgan Lifecar

Until now you may have thought of Morgan as a car company irretrievably stuck in the past. No longer: this Lifecar concept is as advanced as some of the most futuristic cars shown by the world’s largest car companies. At its heart lies not just a hydrogen fuel cell, but a regenerative braking system that can recycle energy that would otherwise be lost, and use it to aid acceleration.

Morgan claims the car would have a potential range of 200 miles and performance commensurate with expectations of the brand. As to whether the Lifecar or something like it will be built and, indeed, how much it would cost, is another matter.

But it succeeded in grabbing headlines on the opening day of the show, which in truth was probably its main purpose.

7 Honda Accord

This new Accord may not look much different from the outgoing model, but it’s fresh from the ground up and will power Honda’s hopes of finally establishing itself among the premium European manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes and Audi. To this end it has benchmarked the BMW 3-series for dynamic prowess and will be aiming to set new standards of quality. It goes on sale in June as a saloon powered by a choice of two petrol and one diesel engine. An estate version will be available from September.

8 Volvo XC60

As if to prove that British designers lead the world in the automotive field, Volvo’s new XC60 mid-sized SUV is the work of Steve Mattin who, in another life, was responsible for the Mercedes-Benz SL.

Arguably the best-looking Volvo of all time and, in a market where demand for mid-sized SUVs is growing faster than for any other, it’s probably also the most relevant SUV. Sales will start in the late summer and come with the promise that the XC60 is not just the most stylish Volvo ever to grace the roads, but unsurprisingly, also the safest. Moreover, it has been tuned for handling prowess so it will be a disappointment if it isn’t every bit as good to drive as it looks. Two diesels and one petrol unit comprise the launch engine lineup, with power outputs ranging from a modest 163bhp to a stirring 285bhp.

You can see a gallery of pictures and watch some of the action of the Geneva motor show on video at www.timesonline.co.uk/geneva

To view The Sunday Times’s rock song as performed by Carparts, and to download it, go to www.timesonline.co.uk/carparts

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