Hyundai Motor’s IONIQ 6 has won the 2023 World Car of the Year (WCOTY) title, as well as the World Car Design of the Year and World Electric Vehicle awards. The Hyundai Motor Group also collected another award for the Kia EV6 GT which won the World Performance Car title.
The IONIQ 6 – also known as the ‘Electric Streamliner’ – beat the other finalists which included the BMW X1/iX1 and the Kia Niro for the overall title. The IONIQ 6 was one of 21 original vehicles that were in contention for the 2023 WCOTY awards in the 19th year of the event.
This is the second consecutive triple win for the Hyundai Motor Group as the IONIQ 5 was last year’s winner in the same three categories.
Continuing its collection of awards, the Hyundai IONIQ 5 has been voted as the 2022 World Car of the Year, besides also winning the 2022 World Electric Vehicle of the Year and the 2022 World Car Design of the Year awards in the same event. The battery electric vehicle (BEV), which entered the market last year, was chosen from an initial list of 28 candidates, and then from 3 finalists. This is the second consecutive year an EV has won the title and the fourth EV in the event’s history.
To be eligible for the overall title, vehicles must be produced in a volume of least 10,000 units per year, priced below the luxury level in their primary markets, and on sale in at least 2 major markets on at least 2 continents at some time between January 1, 2021 and March 30, 2022.
The jury of consisted of 102 automotive journalists from 33 countries who began assessing candidates from August 19, 2021. The preliminary assessments ended with 3 finalists being selected which reflected the industry trend towards electric vehicles: besides the Hyundai, were the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Kia EV6.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E and Kia EV 6 were the other two finalists from 28 candidates.
For the World Car Design of the Year award, a design panel consisting of 6 highly respected design experts was asked to first review each candidate, and they then established a shortlist of recommendations for the jurors’ final vote in February.
The IONIQ 5 received a total of 815 points covering Occupant Environment, Performance, Value, Safety, Environment, Market Significance, Emotional Appeal and Innovation. The EV6, which is the Kia version of the same car, scored 808 points, while the Mustang received 773 points. A closer look at the scores shows that the winner could have been either one as the Kia also scored higher points in some areas such as market significance and performance. But whichever won, it was still a victory for the Hyundai Motor Group which both brands are in. In addition, the 2022 World Car Person of the Year was Luc Donckerwolke, Executive Vice-President, Chief Creative Officer, Hyundai Motor Group.
An additional award for the Hyundai Motor Group’s – Luc Donckerwolke was also chosen as the 2022 World Car Person of the Year.
“We are truly honoured to receive these prestigious awards, which recognize the talent and hard work of all our people and business partners at Hyundai Motor Company. Our vision is to enable Progress for Humanity, and this endorsement of our approach will serve to embolden our commitment to make this vision a reality,” said Jaehoon Chang, President & CEO of Hyundai Motor Company.
“IONIQ 5 represents a pivotal achievement for us as we pioneer a new generation of smart mobility solutions with its innovative E-GMP platform technologies, exceptional performance, and disruptive approach to design and space. Our game-changing EV has made a strong impact on increasingly eco-conscious and demanding consumers around the world, and its success supports the acceleration of electrification of the automotive industry. The pace of change at Hyundai will continue unabated through the rest of 2022 as we will soon be adding to our award-winning IONIQ range,” he added.
The winners of the other categories were as follow:
World Luxury Car: Mercedes-Benz EQS
World Performance Car: Audi e-tron GT
World Urban Car: Toyota Yaris Cross
World Car Design of the Year: Hyundai IONIQ 5
World Electric Vehicle of the Year: Hyundai IONIQ 5
The Volkswagen ID.4 becomes the third all-electric model to be chosen as World Car of the Year (WCOTY) in the 2021 edition of the awards. 93 international journalists from 28 countries that make up the World Car Awards jury panel chose the EV, giving the German carmaker its fifth WCOTY overall award since 2009 (the WCOTY started in 2005).
This year’s winner was chosen from an initial entry list of 24 vehicles from all over the world, then a short list of three finalists as announced on March 30, 2021. The Top Three in the World finalists for 2021 were the Honda e, Toyota Yaris and Volkswagen ID.4.
Since the event began in 2005, Volkswagen models have so far won 5 overall World Car of the Year awards, the most of any carmaker.
Vehicles eligible for the World Car of the Year award must be produced in volumes of at least 10,000 units/year; must be priced below the luxury-car level in their primary markets; and must be ‘on sale’ in at least two major markets, on at least two separate continents, between May 1, 2020 and May 1, 2021.
The Land Rover Defender, which won the World Car Design of the Year award, was also the 2021 Women’s Car of the Year winner.
New award for EVs in 2022
The 2022 awards season and the 18th edition of the Road to the World Car Awards journey will officially begin at the New York International Auto Show on August 19. A new highlight of the 2022 awards program will be the debut of the World Electric Vehicle of the Year award. This new award, which supersedes the World Green Car award, is intended to recognize, support and celebrate the global transition to electrically-powered vehicles that is now underway and the efforts of automakers around the world in developing these climate-conscious vehicles.
First generation of the Nissan LEAF was the first EV to win the World Car of the Year title in 2011.
