The ground-breaking Kia EV9 electric seven-seat family SUV has been named 2024 World Car of the Year and World Electric Car of the Year – as voted by 100 judges from 30 countries – in the 20th annual running of the awards.
Announced at the New York Auto Show overnight, highlights from the 2024 World Car of the Year awards include:
In a demonstration of just how far South Korean cars have come from their humble beginnings, Kia and Hyundai cars won three of the six categories in the 2024 World Car of the Year line-up.
And a sign of our changing taste in cars, four of the six category winners were electric vehicles.
Although it costs close to – or in excess of – $100,000 in Australia (depending on the model grade), the Kia EV9 was praised by the judges for bringing electric power to full-size seven-seat SUVs, and for the vehicle’s noticeable step up in quality and overall driving dynamics.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N hot hatch won the World Performance Car award – one year after its sibling under the skin, the Kia EV6 GT, won the same category.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N’s award is a clear endorsement that electric power is no barrier to top end performance.
Local testing by EFTM of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N shows it has real-world 0 to 100km/h acceleration of 3.5 seconds (using VBox timing equipment). It wasn’t that long ago this level of performance was restricted to mega-dollar supercars.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has massive brakes to match its speed, with larger front discs than the sibling Kia EV6 GT – sports-tuned suspension, and extra coolers for the battery pack and electric motors to handle sustained performance driving such as on track days.
Overseas tests have shown the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is capable of reaching 265km/h (indicated) on Hyundai’s high-speed test track.
The full list of winners in the 2024 World Car of the Year awards – and the historical results – are shown below.
Disclosure: EFTM’s Joshua Dowling has been a World Car of the Year judge since 2010.
Eligibility: For the 2024 World Car of the Year awards there were 100 judges from 30 countries (compared to 105 judges from 35 countries in 2023 and 102 judges from 33 countries tin 2022). The judges can only vote on vehicles they have driven, though approximately half of the judges drove a large proportion of the 70 eligible vehicles at an annual test drive event in the US in late 2023, as well as testing vehicles in their domestic markets throughout the year.
The votes – lodged anonymously – are compiled by accounting firm KPMG. Vehicles eligible for World Car of the Year award must be produced in volumes of at least 10,000 units per year, must be priced below the luxury-car level in their primary markets, and must be on sale in at least two major markets, on at least two separate continents.
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Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, most of that time with Fairfax (The Sydney Morning Herald), News Corp Australia (Herald Sun and News.com.au), and most recently Drive.com.au (owned by Nine Media). He is also a World Car of the Year judge, has won numerous journalism awards, and test drives up to 200 cars per year.
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