Here's a look at all the stars that claimed top honours at the Oscars of the Indian automotive industry...
The winners of the prestigious 17th Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY), 15th Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY), 4th Premium Car Award by ICOTY, and the 2nd Green Car Award by ICOTY were announced in Delhi on 9th March.
The 2022 ICOTY title went to the Mahindra XUV700, while the 2022 IMOTY crown was claimed by the TVS Raider 125. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz took home the Premium Car Award for the S-Class, and the Audi e-tron was declared the 2022 Green Car of the Year. To ensure complete transparency in the winner selection process, Deloitte was brought in as the official knowledge partner.
In this year’s ICOTY battle, the Mahindra XUV700 had competition from some very strong contenders, like the Citroën C5 Aircross, Force Gurkha, Maruti Suzuki Celerio, MG Astor, Nissan Magnite, Renault Kiger, Skoda Kushaq, Skoda Octavia, Tata Punch, and VW Taigun. These were the 11 finalists shortlisted by the ICOTY jury. In the end, the XUV700 took home the crown with 101 points. The Volkswagen Taigun came in second and the Tata Punch rounded off the top three.
Similarly, for the 2022 IMOTY crown, the TVS Raider 125 faced tough competition from the Benelli TRK 502, Bajaj Pulsar NS 125, Bajaj Pulsar F250, Bajaj Pulsar N250, Benelli 502C, Honda CB200X, Royal Enfield Classic 350, and the Yamaha FZ-X. In total, there were nine bikes shortlisted by the IMOTY jury for the final round.
The Mercedes-AMG A 45 S and the Volvo S60 were runners-up in the Premium Car category. As for the Green Car category, the Audi e-tron pipped the RS e-tron GT and the Jaguar I-Pace to claim the top spot on the podium.
On behalf of the juries of ICOTY and IMOTY 2022, of which autoX is proud to be a part, Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Limited, presented the ICOTY 2022 trophy to Veejay Nakra (CEO – Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Automotive Sector) for the XUV700 and the IMOTY 2022 trophy to Aniruddha Haldar (Senior Vice-President – Marketing, TVS Motor Company) for the Raider 125. He also presented the Green Car Award 2022 to Balbir Singh Dhillon (Head – Audi India) for the e-tron and the Premium Car Award 2022 to Martin Schwenk (MD & CEO – Mercedes-Benz India) for the S-Class.
Sharing his thoughts on the occasion, Dr Raghupati Singhania said, 'The prestigious ICOTY and IMOTY awards have become synonymous with excellence in the Indian automobile industry, honouring cars and bikes. The awards are as much about celebrating design and manufacturing excellence, as also recognizing the stellar craftsmanship of our Indian automotive industry even in the face of daunting challenges. Today’s winners represent experts’ judgement of the best that is available to customers right now, and we sincerely congratulate the automotive industry on a very impressive year. It has been an absolute joy to witness the same zeal translating onto the roads. These awards are a testimony to that fervour for excellence and being part of this remarkable journey for the last 17 years continuously has been simply wonderful.'
Commenting on the XUV700's win, Veejay Nakra said, 'We would like to thank the ICOTY 2022 jury for conferring this honour. It is a ringing endorsement for the global standards of design, product development, engineering, manufacturing, and quality that has been put in creating this world-class product, in line with our Honorable Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. It recognizes our continued focus on delivering a strong customer value proposition through innovative and category disrupting products.'
Likewise, sharing his thoughts on the Raider 125's IMOTY win, Aniruddha Haldar said, 'IMOTY has always been the most coveted award in the Indian automotive industry with sheer expertise that backs up at the jury level. The TVS Raider getting felicitation from the esteemed jury has been really heartening with a deep sense of pride as we accept this on behalf of the entire team of TVS Motors and all the consumers who have showered their love for TVS Raider.'
All the finalists of the ICOTY and IMOTY 2022 were judged by the esteemed jury members on multiple parameters, like price, fuel efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, performance, practicality, technical innovation, build quality, value-for-money, and suitability for Indian driving/riding conditions. The Premium Car of the Year award took into consideration all premium and luxury vehicles that sit above the ₹40-lakh mark. These include both locally produced and imported car models.
While judging the finalists was indeed a challenging task, the jury members, with a cumulative automotive evaluation experience of nearly 300 years, exhibited unparalleled analytical skills and competence in evaluating this year’s contenders.
This year’s 17-member ICOTY jury consisted of Yogendra Pratap (Chairman, ICOTY), Rahul Ghosh (Auto Today), Dhruv Behl & Ishan Raghava (autoX), Sirish Chandran & Aniruddha Rangnekar (Evo India), Aspi Bhathena & Sarmad Kadiri (Car India), Bertrand D’Souza & Bob Rupani (Overdrive), Pablo Chaterji & Kartik Ware (Motoring World), Vikrant Singh (CarWale), Ashish Jha (Outlook Traveller), Girish Karkera (Times Auto), Muralidhar Swaminathan (The Hindu Business Line), and Kranti Sambhav (Times Drive).
Likewise, the 14-member IMOTY jury for 2022 included Shivank Bhatt (autoX), Aspi Bhathena & Sarmad Kadiri (Bike India), Rahul Ghosh & Dipayan Dutta (Auto Today), Sirish Chandran & Aatish Mishra (Evo India), Janak Sorap & Kartik Ware (Motoring World), Bertrand D’Souza & Rohit Paradkar (Overdrive), Vikrant Singh (BikeWale), Abhay Verma (Turbocharged), and Kranti Sambhav (Times Drive).
The ICOTY and IMOTY awards were introduced in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and are adjudged by a jury of experts from India’s top automobile publications, making them the most coveted automobile awards in the country. These awards, which expertly and independently select the best cars and bikes every year, have been sponsored by JK Tyre ever since their inception.
Read more:
2021 Indian Car, Premium Car & Motorcycle of the Year winners announced
2020 Indian Car, Premium Car & Motorcycle of the Year winners announced
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