Jaguar Design Director Ian Callum accepts the World Car of The Year Award for the Jaguar I-Pace at the 2019 New York International Auto Show, in New York, on April 17, 2019.BRENDAN MCDERMID/Reuters
If you didn’t know it already, the age of the electrified car is here, and it was pronounced on Wednesday morning with the naming of the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace as World Car of the Year.
The I-Pace beat out Audi’s all-electric e-tron, along with the Volvo S60/V60. Significantly, the I-Pace also won the best-design award, in addition to Green Car of the Year. The e-tron and Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel cell car were finalists in the green car category.
“We started with an ideal, to move towards … zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion,” Ralf Speth, chief executive officer, Jaguar Land Rover, said in a statement. “The I-Pace is our first step to achieving this, and it was conceived when EVs were little more than a niche choice.”
The McLaren 720S was named the 2019 World Performance Car, the Audi A7 took home World Luxury Car honours and the Suzuki Jimny was declared World Urban Car. The Suzuki is not sold in the United States or Canada. The Audi Q8 and BMW 8 Series were finalists in the luxury category.
Eighty-six journalists from around the world voted on the awards, using criteria including safety, performance, design and sustainability. Designers vote on the design category.
The World Car finalists were whittled down from a 10-vehicle shortlist, announced in February. In addition to the I-Pace, e-tron and Volvo, the other finalists were the BMW 3 Series, the Ford Focus, the Genesis G70, the Hyundai Nexo, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the Jimny and the Volvo XC40.
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