- The Indian Car of The Year award is one of the most prestigious acknowledgments by every car manufacturer in India. It came into existence in the year 2005. The 2021 award ceremony ICOTY was held at Andaz Hotel at Aerocity in New Delhi. This was the 16th edition of this prestigious function. The ceremony was attended by select cults of the Indian automotive Industry. The glittering ceremony followed all the protocols of Covid-19. There was a strict social distancing policy and proper sanitization. The crown of the Indian Car of the Year 2021 was won by the Hyundai i20.
- This award was collected on behalf of HMIL by S.S.Kim, MD CEO, HMIL, Tarun Garg, Director, Sales and Marketing, HMIL and DH Park, Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, HMIL.
The Top three cars That made into the final list:
The top three cars in the Indian Car of The Year 2021 ceremony are:
- The Hyundai i20
- Kia Sonet
- Mahindra Thar
Spotlight on the Event
- The event was partnered with JK Tyres. They have been a staunch partner of the Indian Car of the Year Awards since its inception.
- Grant Thornton came onboard as Award Validators and initiated their support to the jury Panel’s Voting process.
- The Tetseo Sisters, a well-known band from Nagaland, was responsible for entertaining the audience with their neo-classical jazz and folk performances.
Winners in Other Categories
The other categories that on in the Indian Car of the Year Ceremony are as follows:
- Green car Award 2021 by ICOTY was presented to Tata Motors for Tata Nexon EV.
- The Premium Car 2021 by ICOTY was presented to Land Rover India for Land Rover Defender.
- The Indian Motor of the Year was awarded to Royal Enfield for the Royal Enfield Meteor 350.
The Selection Criterion
The Indian Car of the Year award allows every new, locally manufactured car model to participate in the event. However, existing models with slight changes do not qualify. There are no barriers regarding country of origin. However, they must have been manufactured or assembled in India, and made available for sale in showrooms before November 30th of the previous year. The cars must have Indian-type approval and imported cars through the CBU route are not eligible.
This year due to the ongoing pandemic, it was not possible for the jury to assemble and test all the contenders together. The vehicles are needed to be thoroughly tested as per guidelines of ICOTY. The nomination cut-off date is November 30, but this year it was extended by 10 days due to pandemic conditions. There was a major setback in the industry. Due to the following reasons, every jury member got a chance to test out each contender individually this year.
The Jury Panel
The ICOTY scoring was done by the following experienced panel of jury members:
- Yogendra Pratap (Auto Today)
- Rahul Ghosh (Auto Today)
- Dhruv Behl (Auto X)
- Ishan Raghava (Auto X)
- Aspi Bhathena (Car India)
- Sarmad Kadri (Car India)
- Sirish Chandran (Evo India)
- Aniruddha Rangnekar (Evo India)
- Pablo Chaterji (Motoring World)
- Kartik Ware (Motoring World)
- Bertrand D’souza (Overdrive)
- Bob Rupani (Overdrive)
- Muralidhar Swaminathan (The Hindu Business Line)
- Vikrant Singh (Carwale)
- Kushan Mitra (The Pioneer)
- Girish Karkera (Times Auto)
- Kranti Sambhav (Times Drive)
The Final Contenders of Indian Car of the Year 2021
Following the guidelines, the final contender of ICOTY 2021 were:
- The Honda City
- Hyundai i20
- Hyundai Creta
- Hyundai Aura
- Kia Carnival
- Kia Sonet
- Mahindra Thar
- MG Gloster
- Tata Altroz
The judging and voting was conducted online. The process of scoring and voting was monitored by Grant Thornton Bharat. The points tally and winner were revealed at the award night.
The winners were announced and facilitated by Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd.