At NY autoshow, Hyundai Ioniq 5 wins World Car of the Year title

Hyundai Motor‘s first all-electric car Ioniq 5 was named World Car of the Year by the World Car Awards for solidifying its position as the carmaker’s signature EV in global markets as well as for creating its unique vehicle design, the company said Thursday.

On the announcement made on the eve of the New York International Auto Show, its chief Chung Euisun said the carmaker will continue to push for making competitive all-electric vehicles and also speed up the establishment of the charging infrastructure.

“We will also put efforts into making accomplishments in not only the automobile sector but also in the new business sectors by efficiently managing production and sales globally, and hiring talented workers,” he added.

New business sectors include developing autonomous driving technology and applying them to not only cars, but for urban air mobility and robots.

“We aim to make autonomous driving level 3 perfect by 2026. We have started testing autonomous driving level 4. But the fact that we started such testing is not what is important, but how perfect it will be. We think that in the US we will be able to produce and sell level 4 cars in 2026,” Chung said.

In its robotics sector, Hyundai Motor Group will make robots for both industrial and personal use.

“For personal robots, we plan to make ‘personal assistant robots’ that follow the user everywhere. To be honest, we still have a long way to go.”

In the World Car Awards, the Ioniq 5 also won the title of World Electric Vehicle of the Year and World Car Design of the Year, swiping three award honors out of six categories.

The World Car Awards are decided by a panel of 102 jurors that are automotive journalists from 33 countries. They are among the most prestigious global car awards, along with the North American Car of the Year and the European Car of the Year awards.

The Ioniq 5 beat Kia’s first all-electric EV6 and the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which had also been finalists for the overall World Car of the Year award from an initial entry list of 28 vehicles.

This was the first year all finalists of the World Car of the Year were electric vehicles.

“(The Ioniq 5) has established itself as a perfect flagship model for Hyundai Motor by establishing its position in the global electric vehicle market with its retro and future-oriented design and proper harmony of flexible interior space,” commented jurors of the World Car Awards.

Since its launch in 2021, the Ioniq 5 has won numerous accolades, including German Car of the Year, UK Car of the Year, Auto Express Car of the Year and Auto Bild Electric Car of the Year.

The South Korean automaker also unveiled the 2023 Hyundai Palisade, while its sister company Kia introduced the face-lifted Telluride SUV ahead of its US launch later this year.

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)