New York - Hyundai has scooped the World Car of the Year award for the second year in a row, with the Ioniq 6 electric sedan taking top honours in the 2023 competition.
Last year’s overall winner was the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover, which is built on the same E-GMP platform as this year’s winner. The Hyundai Ioniq 6 also scooped the Electric Vehicle and World Car Design of the Year category awards.
The sedan, which competes with the Tesla Model 3, has a starting price of $41 600 in the US (about R750 000) and is available with a variety of battery and powertrain options, offering outputs of between 111kW and 238kW.
Apart from the aforementioned categories that were won by the Hyundai Ioniq 6, the competition organisers also announced the following category winners:
- World Luxury Car: Lucid Air
- World Performance Car: Kia EV6
- World Urban Car: Citroen C3
To scoop the overall Car of the Year award, the Ioniq 6 had to beat an initial entry list of 30 vehicles, which were eventually whittled down to a list of three finalists, where it had to fend off the new BMW X1 / iX1 and Kia Niro.
In order to qualify for the overall award, the vehicle must be priced below the “luxury-car” level in its primary market, and must be sold in at least two major markets on at least two continents.
The contest is judged by 100 motoring journalists from around the world, including three South African jurors: Brenwin Naidu, Hannes Oosthuizen and Lerato Matebese.
The World Car Design contenders are shortlisted from an initial pool of 78 vehicles by a panel of six highly respected world design experts, including Ian Callum.
Hyundai design chief SangYup Lee said he always wanted to connect with customers on an emotional level with the design of the Ioniq 6.
“The daring streamliner styling combines strong emotional appeal with aerodynamic efficiency to give exceptional range,” Lee said.
“Inside, we set-out to create a personal studio which offers the mindful space and calm functionality which, we believe, elevates EV design.”