India’s finest auto journalist presented the ICOTY or the Indian Car of the Year for 2020, the most prestigious award of our country’s automobile industry. This year the ICOTY was awarded to the Hyundai Venue, while the BMW 3 Series won for the ‘Premium Car Award 2020’.
Every year, well-reputed journalists from various automobile, publications come together to judge, analyse and share their thoughts on the various cars that have been launched over the past year. Like every year, the fifteenth edition of the ICOTY awards and the second year of the ‘Premium Car Award’ were supported by JK Tyre who have been sponsoring the grand award ceremony right since its inception.
This year, ICOTY partnered with Grant Thornton, who were the official award validation partners. The jury members cast their votes at the BIC (Buddh International Circuit) after which the scoring sheets were collected by representatives from the organization. The points were calculated by Grant Thornton and this ensured secrecy until the awards were finally revealed. There were various parameters while deciding such as pricing, relevance and raising the bar in its segment. The jury members cast their votes keeping all these factors in mind.
The jury consisted of Yogendra Pratap (Chairman) and Rahul Ghosh from Auto Today, Dhruv Behl and Ishan Raghava from AutoX, Aspi Bhathena and Sarmad Kadiri from Car India, Sirish Chandran and Aniruddha Rangnekar from Evo India, Pablo Chaterji and Kartik Ware from Motoring World, Bertrand D’souza and Rohit Paradkar from Overdrive, Muralidhar Swaminathan from The Hindu Business Line, Vikrant Singh from CarWale, Kushan Mitra from The Pioneer and Girish Karkera from Automotive.
The results were revealed at the event on the evening of 18 December. The awards had an impressive turnout, with various management of manufacturers all eager to know who had won the Indian Car of the Year 2020. Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, and Yogendra Pratap opened the envelope and announced the winner of the ICOTY 2020 as the Hyundai Venue. Trailing in second place was the Kia Seltos, while the Renault Triber came third in the standings.
Representing Hyundai Venue, the winner of ICOTY 2020, Mr. S.S. Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Limited, said, “It is a moment of great pride for all of us at the Hyundai family. We are honoured to win the most prestigious automotive award – ‘Indian Car of the Year 2020’ for India’s First Connected SUV – Hyundai VENUE. Hyundai VENUE has become the customers’ first choice in India and has penned a new success story with over 95,000 bookings (till date) in India. Winning the 6th ICOTY award symbolizes the trust and faith of customers in Hyundai brand. We thank all our Customers, Partners, Media and Jurors for choosing Hyundai VENUE as the Indian Car of the Year 2020 and making Hyundai the Most Loved and Trusted car manufacturer in India.”
Congratulating the winners, Yogendra Pratap, Chairman, ICOTY 2020, said, “Hyundai Venue and Kia Seltos were close competitors for the top slot of Indian Car of The Year 2020 Award. While both the cars are standouts in their respective segments, value for money was a key consideration and Hyundai Venue stood out given its accessibility. Even on the performance parameter, it emerged as the clear winner. For Premium Car Award 2020 by ICOTY, both the top two contenders, BMW 3-Series and X5 have evolved notably over their previous generations. With affordability and accessibility as the top valued factors for assessment, BMW 3-Series emerged as the top choice.”
