Volvo XC40 wins the first Premium Car Award by ICOTY

This year, the Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) committee added a new page in its illustrious history by introducing a new award category to honour the best car from the premium segment. Called the Premium Car Award by ICOTY, the new award categorises and puts into contention, all premium, performance, and luxury cars that sit upward of Rs 40 lakh. These include both, locally produced as well as imported units.

The Volvo is the first car to win the new Premium Car Award by ICOTY

The first ever automobile to win the Premium Car Award by the ICOTY committee was the Volvo XC40. The compact luxury crossover had to fend tough competition from its own sibling, the versatile XC60, and the fast and desirable Mercedes-AMG E63 S. The other cars in contention for the Premium Car Award were the Audi Q5, Audi RS5, BMW X3, BMW 6 Series GT, Lexus ES300h, Mini Countryman, Porsche Cayenne, and Range Rover Velar.

The contenders of the 2019 Premium Car Award by ICOTY along with the eminent jury

The Volvo XC40 has, in fact, wowed us on multiple occasions and at OVERDRIVE it has also won the comparison test against the segment leader, the BMW X1. Given its feature-rich packaging, competitive pricing and lovely driving dynamics, it was no surprise that the esteemed jury of the ICOTY committee chose the XC40 as the winner of the Premium Car Award 2019.

This year's ICOTY jury committee was made up of Yogendra Pratap and Rahul Ghosh from Auto Today, Dhruv Behl and Ishan Raghava from AutoX, Aspi Bhathena and Sarmad Kadiri from Car India, Sirish Chandran and Aninda Sardar from Evo India, Hani Musthafa from Flywheel, Pablo Chaterji from Mans World, Kartik Ware and Raunak Ajinkya from Motoring World, Abhay Verma and Rohit Paradkar from OVERDRIVE, Muralidhar Swaminathan from The Hindu Business Line, Girish Karkera and Agasti Kaulgi from Top Gear India and Vikrant Singh from carwale.com.

On behalf of the ICOTY committee, the Premium Car Award was presented by Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Limited, to Mr. Charles Frump, Managing Director, Volvo Auto India. Mr. Yogendra Pratap, Chairman of the ICOTY, presented Volvo with the winner's certificate that was signed by all the jury members.