Volvo Cars will donate €15,000 in the winning team's name to a carbon offset project promoted by "myclimate".

The purpose of the contest is to drive the economical, fuel-efficient Volvo C30 DRIVe round the world, using a network of contacts. The Volvo C30 DRIVe has a fuel consumption of 74.3 mpg, enabling it to cover 825 miles on a tank of fuel. This means that each participant drives the car for 825 virtual miles before passing it on to a Facebook friend, who in turn does likewise. The circle is completed when the car returns to its original starting point. The various teams' routes round the world can be followed on Volvo's Facebook page.

The contest ends on February 5. It can be accessed either by logging on to VCC's Facebook page www.facebook.com/volvo or by logging on to the contest directly at apps.facebook.com/drivearoundtheworld.

"This challenge ties in with Volvo's new campaign ‘There's More To Life Than A Volvo, that's why you drive one' by highlighting how vital our personal connections are in making the world a better place. And when the competition is finally concluded, Volvo will have found arguably the world's most well-connected people," says Lukas Dohle, who is in charge of Live Communication and Social Media at Volvo Car Corporation in Gothenburg, Sweden.