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Volkswagen ID.4 won the 2021 World Car of the Year award.
Volkswagen
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Volkswagen says ID.4 is as important to the company’s future as Beetle was to its past.
Jonathan Gitlin
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Rarely did I have so much difficulty shooting a new car on a press day of the car show that I tried to get a good picture of the Honda E. It was always robbed.
Jonathan Gitlin
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Which isn’t too surprising given how cool this thing looks.
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Defender is a modern approach to a 20th century classic.
Jonathan Gitlin
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Land Rover Defender 2021.
Land Rover
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In addition to Passenger Defenders, the Land Rover had some more vans on its stand at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Jonathan Gitlin
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If there is anything, the interior is even better.
Jonathan Gitlin
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Torx screws abound!
Jonathan Gitlin
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The first Mazda EV battery is this small crossover, the MX-30.
Mazda
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Like the BMW i3, the MX-30 has suicide doors.
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Polestar 2 uses an angular design language.
polar Star
The real measure of success for Volkswagen’s embrace of post-diesel electric vehicles (EVs) will be how many the company can sell each year. But on Tuesday, VW’s job could have eased a bit. That’s because the new ID.4 crossover just won this year’s World Car of the Year award, beating two other finalists, the adorable Honda E and the new Toyota Yaris. Fear not, fans E: the little electric hatchback won the World Urban Car category. Previous winners included the Kia Telluride and Jaguar I-Pace.
I expected the Honda E to win World Car Design of the Year; as one of the 93 jurors around the world, I gave him high marks because look at him. But several of my fellow jurors chose Land Rover Defender for this honor, and Land Rover also defeated Mazda MX-30 in this process.
The World Luxury Car Award was given to the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, probably no surprise, given that the other two finalists were Defender and Polestar 2. Polestar is a fine EV with a very smart technology, but it is not a match for bombastic Benz.
Porsche’s new 911 Turbo took first place in the World Performance Car category. To be honest, that hurts a little. In a normal year, I would have led most or all of the finalists in all categories, but the cancellations of COVID meant only the time occupied in one hand. Jurors are only allowed to enter the vehicles they actually drove, so Ars had no input to provide the performance award, which also included the Audi RS Q8 and Toyota GR Yaris. Toyota is a special approval for a racing version that no longer competes. It has a small casing compared to the normal Yaris and almost everyone who drove it fell in love. Unfortunately, there are no plans to bring him to the United States.
The same goes for all three World Urban Car finalists, which also included the Honda Jazz (or Fit) and the normal Yaris, along with the Honda E. As mentioned, the E win here was to be expected; the environment is one of the characteristics that each car evaluates, which means that an EV propulsion system is to the advantage, all the others being equal.
For 2022, that will not be the case – at least for a newly introduced category for the World Electric Vehicle of the Year. With so many new electric vehicles set to hit showrooms next year, it’s sure to be a hotly contested award.
Image listed by Volkswagen