Vitara Brezza wins ICOTY 2017

The automotive landscape in India is becoming fiercely competitive with every passing year; and new, late entrants are still attempting to set foot into this market. Jeep came in this year, and next year could see Lexus, Kia Motors and even Tesla finally land on these shores. Already amongst the top passenger car markets, occupying the fifth spot, the Indian market can still sustain the surging demand for cars despite the government’s yo-yoing policy measures and the slow improvement in road infrastructure.

This year’s biggest threats to the demand for passenger cars came from the diesel ban in the NCR region and the current demonetisation move by the government. Both of these policy measures have adversely affected car sales. Despite the negative impact, car makers weren’t deterred and have still gone ahead with their launch plans, bringing in an unprecedented number of new car models across the size and price range.

Naturally, 2016 has been the toughest year for the jury of the Indian Car of the Year award (ICOTY). Instituted 11 years ago, and being one of the oldest and most prestigious car awards, the ICOTY recognises excellence in innovation and manufacturing amongst car manufacturers who created the best cars for this market. The award doesn’t include car brands that imported and sold completely built units (CBUs) in India. Only models that were assembled and manufactured locally make it to the shortlist. So, most luxury car models were not even in contention. Yet, the ICOTY 2017 qualifiers list included 19 new cars. And, of these, 13 new cars, the highest in years, made it to the final list.

The top six contenders were the 2016 models of the Ford Endeavour, the Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Tucson, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, the Toyota Innova Crysta and the Skoda Superb. Each of these new cars and 2016 models of existing models like the Innova, Elantra and the Endeavour had their own suite of extremely strong winning qualities. The Innova for example was a vehicle that was already at the top of the game in the MPV segment. Yet, the new model has significantly pushed up its appeal, build quality and performance, clearly resetting the benchmark in the segment. The same can be said about the new Elantra and Tucson versus their predecessors.

So, the competition amongst the finalists in this 12th edition of the ICOTY was intense. The jury voting round is conducted during the first week of December every year and the cars that are launched till November of the year become eligible for the shortlist. Minor model modifications are not considered for the award. Eventually, the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza emerged the winner of the ICOTY 2017. The runner up was the Hyundai Tucson and the Toyota Innova Crysta took the third spot.

The Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza was entirely designed, developed and prototyped in India by the company’s research and development team. Apparently, only the test and validation was conducted in Suzuki’s R&D facilities in Japan. The Vitara Brezza truly represents the preferences and the quirks of the Indian car buyer and this car market environment. Being a sub-four-metre sports utility vehicle, the Brezza is representative of the current craze for SUVs and sports-style vehicles here, while it still leverages the policy environment that incentivises vehicles within this size limit.

The Indian Car of the Year is the only award that has representatives from multiple publications. The ICOTY’s specialist jury consists of fifteen senior Indian automotive journalists; who together have about 250 years of car evaluation experience. The jury’s competence in evaluating and testing cars as a part of their profession is well recognised. The members represent nine publications, including The Hindu Business Line, Overdrive, Top Gear, Auto Today, Car India, AutoX, Motoring World, Evo India and Mans World. The jury is responsible for selecting a single decisive winner and the voting process has been designed to be very fair, unbiased and tamper proof.

JK Tyre & Industries has been associated with ICOTY as sponsors of the award ceremony since the inception of the award. The ICOTY award is in line with international standards and modeled on the American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and Japanese Car of the Year. Every year, the eligible cars are judged on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, features, performance, practicality, technical innovation, value for money and above all suitability for Indian consumers and driving conditions.

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