ICOTY 2021: Hyundai i20 is the Indian Car of the Year

Tuhin Guha Updated: February 26, 2021, 10:39 PM IST

The third-gen Hyundai i20 has been named the winner of the 2021 Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) Award. As for the other categories, the Tata Nexon EV has been conferred with the first-ever Green Car Award by ICOTY 2021 and the Land Rover Defender with the 2021 Premium Car Award by ICOTY.

The Hyundai i20 took the top prize with a score of 104 points from the jury. Following it at a close second place was the Kia Sonet with 91 points and the third-place winner was the Mahindra Thar with 78 points. The Tata Nexon EV took top honours in its category with 106 points, the Hyundai Kona followed in second with 99 points and the MG ZS EV in third with 93 points. As for the premium car winner, the Land Rover Defender scored 108 points, followed by the Mercedes-Benz GLE at some distance with 77 points and the BMW 2 Series with 61 points.

Each of the judges scored the contenders on 25 points. Judges were asked to rate at least five contenders and have picked a clear winner out of these. The process was conducted digitally and validated for confidentiality by an external agency. This panel of judges consists of experienced automotive journalists from the biggest publications in the country, which also includes OVERDRIVE as a founding member of ICOTY.

Editor Bertrand D'Souza and consulting editor Bob Rupani are part of the ICOTY jury this year. Heading the juror's panel is Yogendra Pratap, editor at Auto Today. Other members are Rahul Ghosh, associate editor, Auto Today; Dhruv Behl, editor at AutoX, Ishan Raghava, associate editor at AutoX; Aspi Bhatena, editor of Car India and Bike India; Sarmad Kadiri, executive editor at Car India and Bike India; Sirish Chandran, editorial director of Evo India and Fast Bikes India; Annirudha Rangnekar, contributing editor at Evo India; Pablo Chaterji, executive editor at Motoring World; Kartik Ware, managing editor at Motoring World; Muralidhar Swaminathan, consulting motoring editor at Hindu Businessline; Vikrant Singh, editor at Carwale, Bikewale and CarTrade; Kushan Mitra, managing editor at The Pioneer, Girish Karkera, consulting editor at Times Auto and Kranti Sambhav, editor and lead at Times Drive.

The Hyundai i20 is powered by a set of familiar engines, already seen on cars like the Venue and facelifted Verna. At the base of the range is the 1.2-litre naturally-aspirated Kappa four-cylinder petrol which makes 83PS when paired with a five-speed manual and 88PS when paired with the CVT. Torque output is 114 Nm. The 1.0-litre three-cylinder T-GDi makes an appearance here too, in its highest 120PS and 172 Nm form. This pairs with either a seven-speed DCT or a six-speed iMT. There is no manual option but Hyundai claims a 0 to 100 kmph time of 9.9s with the turbo-iMT. The diesel engine option is the 1.5-litre four-cylinder U2 CRDi diesel. Seen here in its non-VGT 100PS and 240 Nm, this motor pairs only with a six-speed manual.

The turbo-petrol i20 has a mileage of 20.25 kmpl. The 1.2-litre petrol with the manual returns 20.35 kmpl with the manual and 19.65 kmpl with the CVT. The diesel manual has a fuel-efficiency figure of 25.2 kmpl. Helping here is the co-efficient of drag of 0.33. Prices for the Hyundai i20 start from Rs 6.80 lakh for the base Magna 1.2 MT and go up to Rs 11.33 lakh for the Asta (O) 1.0 turbo DCT dual tone. Read our review of the Hyundai i20 here to know more.

In 2020, the Hyundai Venue won the ICOTY award and the G20 BMW 3 Series won the Premium Car Award by ICOTY.

Know who the other contenders for ICOTY 2021 were here

Hyundai i20 2020 Full Spec

Price (Ex-Delhi)
Starts Rs 6.8 Lakhs

Displacement
1493cc

Transmission
Manual

Max Power(ps)
83

Max Torque(Nm)
241

Mileage
-NA-

BMW 3 Series 2020 Full Spec

Price (Ex-Delhi)
Starts Rs 41.7 Lakhs

Displacement
1998cc