Esteemed Indian manufacturer Maruti Suzuki have taken top honours claiming the 2019 Indian Car Of The Year (ICOTY) with their third-generation Swift hatchback. In an interesting turn of events, the jury also introduced a new award for luxury vehicles with the first ever Premium Car Of The Year going to the Volvo XC40.
The Indian Car Of The Year was announced at a ceremony in Mumbai on December 20, 2018. the vaunted trophy was handed over by Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industrial Limited, to Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki. The chairman of the ICOTY jury, Yogendra Pratap, presented a winner’s certificate signed by all the members of the jury for the ICOTY 2019 to Maruti Suzuki. A similar procedure was followed for the Premium Car Of The Year, with the award being collected by Charles Frump, Managing Director, Volvo Auto India.
The event saw several energetic performances with the Terrance Lewis Contemporary Dance Company setting the mood for the packed audience and the stalwarts of the Indian automotive industry, and a hilarious act from stand-up comic Rohan Joshi making sure things wouldn’t get too serious.
Among all the cars launched in 2018, there were several other contenders for the coveted 14th edition of the ICOTY award, eventually shortlisted to eight finalists – the Honda Amaze, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Santro, Mahindra Marazzo, Mahindra Alturas G4, Maruti Suzuki Swift, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, and Toyota Yaris. All generations of the Swift have won the ICOTY award with the first one being in 2006, and then later in 2012. The Swift beat out runner-ups Hyundai Santro and Honda Amaze to take the top prize.
The guidelines for the new Premium Car Of The Year puts into contention all luxury, and performance cars sitting at a price range upwards of Rs 40 lakh. These include locally assembled units as well as import units. The contenders for the first ever Premium Car Of The Year award were the Audi Q5, Audi RS 5 Coupé, BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo, BMW X3, Mercedes-AMG E 63 S, MINI Countryman, Lexus ES 300h, Porsche Cayenne, Range Rover Velar, Volvo XC40, and Volvo XC60.
The specialist jury consists of eighteen senior Indian automotive journalists who award points to worthy contenders after a through evaluation that draws on all their vast experience in the automotive industry. This group of senior journalists is responsible for selecting a single, out-and-out winner through a voting process which is designed to be completely fare and tamper proof.
