Seven-seat electric SUV named World Car of the Year

The seven-seat family SUV won the overall prestigious World Car title – and beat stiff opposition to take the Best Electric world car gong as well.

The three-row EV is on sale in Ireland with a starting price of €77,500 for the Earth model which is rear-wheel driven while the all-wheel-drive GT-Line costs from €85,500.

It beat challenges for the top title from the BYD Seal/Atto4 and the Volvo EX30.

There were a number of special-sector winners. This year they again highlighted how dramatically the volume of electric vehicles has expanded in the 12 months as Volvo’s compact EX30 crossover, beaten by KIA for the overall award was voted the world’s best urban car. It beat the BYD Dolphin and Lexus LBX to the title.

BMW took the World Luxury Car award with its combined duo of the 5-series petrol and the electric i5. It beat two Mercedes to the punch: the E-Class and the EQE SUV.

Hyundai’s new IONIQ 5 N took top spot in the world car performance car sector, fending off the BMW M2 and BMW XM.

The Toyota Prius plug-in was voted World car Design of the year.

A jury of 100 automotive journalists from 29 countries, including myself as Motoring Editor of the Irish Independent, selected the winners by secret ballot based.

We evaluated each eligible vehicle as part of on-going professional work. The vote results were tabulated by KPMG. After a first-round ballot we voted again for the Top Three in each category and the winners were announced at the New York auto show today.

All cars eligible for other World Car award categories are automatically eligible for World Car Design of the Year. This year there were 70 eligible vehicles.