For the first time in its history, the Car of the Year jury (COTY "Car of the year"), which includes a member of Le Figaro, - the votes of the two Russian journalists were not counted due to tragic events that shake the world -, awarded the 2022 title to a Korean car, the Kia EV6.
This is the third time since 1964 that an electric car has been rewarded.
The Nissan Leaf had been the first in 2011. The Jaguar i-Pace had won the title in 2019 on equal points with the Alpine A110, which had never happened in the history of COTY but the English crossover the had won by counting the largest number of votes from each country in its favour.
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COTY
This year, six electric vehicles appeared in the final - unheard of in the history of the trophy - a single electrified car.
Indeed, the Peugeot 308 was the only vehicle to offer the choice between thermal engines (petrol and diesel) and electrified technology (rechargeable hybrid and electric from 2024).
Among the six electric models were the Cupra Born, Skoda Enyaq, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Renault Megane E-Tech Electric.
COTY
Each of the 61 European journalists making up the jury had to distribute the 25 points available to them among the seven finalists, bearing in mind that it is forbidden to award more than 10 points to a vehicle and that the same number of points to multiple vehicles.
In the end, the Kia wins with 279 points ahead of the Renault Mégane Electric credited with 265 points and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (261 points).
The Peugeot 308 finished just off the podium with 191 points.
A detailed look at the results shows a wide spread of ratings that benefited the Kia.
Unlike the Mégane and the Ioniq 5, the EV6 never gets the maximum score of 10 points.
Moreover, the Hyundai points fifteen times to first place, against fourteen times for the Renault and only twelve times for the Kia.
The latter is credited only twice with 9 points.
Unlike two other models on the podium, the Kia has not been subject to rejections.
For its part, the Renault is credited several times with a single point.
A German journalist even gave it a zero point.
In the end, the overall qualities of the Kia made the difference for the majority of the members of the jury, mainly its comfort, its recharging power (800 volt system) making it possible to recover, in the best case, 80% of its battery capacity of 77,
4 kWh in 18 minutes on a fast terminal thanks to its charger which accepts up to 239 kW, and its price/performance ratio.
If we consider that the Car of the Year should be aimed at the greatest number, at 47,990 euros in base price (229 hp version), the Kia democratizes access to technology in a certain way. electric.
This is also what the members of the Car of the Year jury wanted to salute.
