Hyundai Motor Company’s dedicated electric car’Ioniq 6′ was selected as the’2023 World Car of the Year’ by the World Car Awards. Following the Ioniq 6 winning three gold medals including this, Kia’s electric vehicle ‘EV6 GT’ also became the ‘High Performance Car of the Year’. It is evaluated that the status of Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicles, which swept 4 out of 6 categories, is getting higher and higher.
According to Hyundai Motor Group on the 6th, the World Car Awards Steering Committee announced the winners in six categories at the 2023 World Car Awards on the 5th (local time). The World Car of the Year is a method in which three cars with high scores among 30 candidates are selected as final candidates and selected through a final evaluation.
The Ioniq 6 scored a total of 796 points and was selected as the car of the year, beating Kia’Niro’ (756 points) and BMW’X1’ (740 points). The Ioniq 6 also took first place in the ‘Electric Vehicle of the Year’ and ‘Car Design of the Year’. Following last year’s ‘Ioniq 5’, Hyundai Motor Company achieved three gold medals in the same category for two consecutive years. “This award will serve as a driving force to become a global leader in the era of electrification and to become a provider of smart mobility solutions,” said Jae-hoon Jang, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company.
The Kia EV6 GT received the highest score among high-performance cars. In particular, it is analyzed that the Hyundai Motor Group gained confidence in the electric vehicle technology sector as it was selected as the high-performance car of the year, beating the internal combustion engine vehicles’Nissan Z’ and’Toyota GR Corolla’. The remaining two categories of the World Car Awards, ‘Luxury Car of the Year’, were selected for the American electric car ‘Lucid Air’, and ‘City Car of the Year’ was selected for the French Citroen ‘C3’, respectively.
The World Car Awards, which started in 2004, determines the winners by voting by a panel of judges composed of 100 automotive journalists from 32 countries around the world, including Korea, the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and India. It is recognized as one of the world’s three major automobile awards along with ‘North American Car of the Year’ and ‘European Car of the Year’.
Hyundai/Genesis Global Design Center Vice President Lee Sang-yeop (left) and Hyundai Motor Global Chief Operating Officer Jose Muñoz taking a commemorative photo with the World Car of the Year trophy (provided by Hyundai Motor Group)Hyundai Motor Group has been selected as the World Car of the Year three times out of the past four years, from Kia’Telluride’ in 2020, Ioniq 5 in 2022, and Ioniq 6 this year. Hyundai Motor Group believes that it is especially meaningful that cars with E-GMP, a platform dedicated to electric vehicles, were selected as the best cars in a row. As the platform virtually determines the performance of electric vehicles, it can be said that the excellence of E-GMP has also been verified.
Domestic and overseas sales of Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicles with E-GMP more than doubled from 96,602 in 2021 to 208,990 last year. This year as well, 45,390 units were sold by February, continuing its popularity. In the automobile industry, the award of the Ioniq 6 is expected to have a positive impact on the sales of new models such as Kia’s large electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) ‘EV9’ to which E-GMP is applied in the future.
Ioniq 6 is the second model of Ioniq, an electric vehicle brand of Hyundai Motor Company. It is a high-efficiency electric vehicle that can drive 6.2 km per 1 kWh (kilowatt hour) by achieving the lowest air resistance coefficient (0.21) among all Hyundai Motors models. The distance that can be driven on a single charge is up to 524 km (based on the long-range model with 18-inch wheels and two-wheel drive). Domestic sales of the Ioniq 6 began in September of last year, and sales are expanding to the US and Europe.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.