At the end of each year, most motoring based media organisations compile and publish what they deem their car of the year. Years ago, the most prestigious of these awards was the ‘Wheels Car of The Year‘ which in 1963, the first year of the awards saw the Renault 8 take the title.
Since then, other notable winners have been the Holden HK Monaro in 1968, Honda Accord in 1978, Mazda MX5 in 1989, Ford Territory in 2004 and Holdens billion-dollar baby, the VE Commodore in 2006. These announcements were always met with varying degrees of discussion and on several occasions the judges didn’t believe any car released in the year warranted the title and so the award was withheld. I can’t help but feel that with hindsight, maybe that should have been the case in 1973 when the Leyland P76 V8 was awarded the Wheels Car of the Year!
That aside, I do find it interesting to see what vehicles have been announced as Cars of the Year considering how diverse the market has now become and how difficult it is to suggest that one car is the best.
However, this year in Australia there were three cars that won the honour over varying mastheads – the Kia Sorrento, the Mazda CX-30 and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
For me, out of these three cars, the one that really stands out is the mid-sized electric cross-over Ioniq 5. This is Hyundai’s first dedicated Electric Vehicle model and I believe with the price starting at just above $70,000, the Ioniq 5 is a truly broad appeal ground-breaking car.
Here’s what the Editor in Chief of the UK’s Auto Express, Steve Fowler thinks of the car. ‘When we first saw the Concept 45 that previewed the IONIQ 5, we knew the production car would be something special. IONIQ 5 delivers on styling, quality, driver appeal and quality. Hyundai has already proven to be a technology leader in the Electric Vehicle space, and IONIQ 5 takes it one step further. It’s a brilliant car’.
On the local scene, here’s what carsales Mark Higgins thought of the Ioniq 5
If you keep an eye out, you’ll see of growing number of Ioniq 5’s on our roads as the initial batch of 240 vehicles were sold out in just over two hours of on-line orders opening up, in early October last year. Unfortunately, due to the global semi-conductor shortage, only limited stock will trickle into Australia in the immediate future.
So, getting back to the Car of the Year Awards, this is why carsales named the Hyundai Ioniq 5 their car of the year, and I reckon it was the right call too.