Kia Carens wins Indian Car of the Year award at ICOTY 2023

In the 18th edition of the Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY), the Kia Carens was announced as the winner of the Indian Car of the Year 2023. It beat its runner-ups, the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara and Mahindra Scorpio-N, to emerge as the winner. At the same time, the Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 bagged the Premium Car of the Year award, while the Kia EV6 was declared the Green Car of the Year by ICOTY.

For the 18th season of the award, a total of 10 cars made their way to the list of contenders, including the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Carens, Skoda Slavia, Mahindra Scorpio-N, Maruti Suzuki Alto K10, Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Citroen C3, and Volkswagen Virtus. Notably, the winners of the ICOTY in the past three years include the Mahindra XUV700, Hyundai i20, and Hyundai Venue.

For the Premium Car Award by ICOTY 2023, the shortlisted contenders were the Audi Q3, BMW i4, BMW iX, Ferrari 296 GTB, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Kia EV6, Lexus NX 350h, Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes-AMG A45 S, Mercedes-Benz EQS 580, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 emerged as the winner of the 2023 Premium Car Award. Interestingly, the first runner-up was BMW i4, followed by the BMW iX as the second runner-up. The previous winners of this award included the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Land Rover Defender, and BMW 3 Series (G20), respectively.

On the other hand, contenders in the Green Car Award by ICOTY 2023 category included the Honda City e:HEV, BMW i4, BMW iX, Kia EV6, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Mercedes-Benz EQS 580, Mini Cooper SE, Tata Tiago EV, Volvo XC40 Recharge, and Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder. The Kia EV6 won the 2023 Green Car Award while the Tata Tiago EV and Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara were declared the first and second runner-ups, respectively. It is to be noted that the Audi e-tron won the 2022 Green Car Award, whereas the Tata Nexon EV bagged the 2021 Green Car Award.

ICOTY selects the winner by a unanimous voting process. Each member has 25 points to award. They have to award points to at least five contenders, and the maximum a jury member can offer a car is 10 points. Notably, the jury panel consists of noted and experienced motoring journalists from various automotive publications in India, including OVERDRIVE - a proud founding member of the prestigious ICOTY award.

OVERDRIVE's Editor Bertrand D'Souza and Consulting Editor Bob Rupani have been a part of the ICOTY and were also the jury members for this edition. Moreover, Dhruv Behl, Founder, AutoX, was appointed as Chairman. Other jury members for this season included Ishan Raghava, Managing Editor, AutoX; Sirish Chandran, Editorial Director, Evo India; Aatish Mishra, Assistant Editor, Evo India; Aspi Bhatena, Editor, Car India and Bike India; Dhruv Saxena, Senior Correspondent, Auto Today; Abhik Das, Assistant Editor, Auto Today; Jim G, Deputy Editor, Car India; Pablo Charterji, Executive Editor, Motoring World; Kartik Ware, Managing Editor, Motoring World; Mulralihar Swaminathan, Consulting Motoring Editor, Business Line; Abhay Verma, Editor and Publisher, Turbocharged; Ameya Dandekar, Associate Editor, CarDekho; Girish Karkera, Editor, Times Auto; Kranti Sambhav, Editor and Lead, Times Drive; and Kushan Mitra, The Print.